The Terminus Conflict
by mad0slayer
Summary: The Council liked their peace behind there Mighty fleets they were not ready for them, The Federation new but tested, they were young but skilled and sufficiently advanced. They thaught themselves better to lead. They would be surprised. The Warlords thaught themselves powerful and Unbeatable they were not ready for a new Enemy. They would wage war. But none were ready for Humanity
1. Chapter 1

**Sorry that this took so long but I have been kind of lost on where I wanted this story to go so I have been mostly going over ideas on how I wanted this to turn out. I still not entirely sure where I want it to end up but I mostly got that sorted now. The codex has been updated so if you want more information you can go and take a look. This story also will be more AU than Before with the Galaxy been different with more factions and another galactic government. So enjoy and I will try to maintain regular updates. Also, there are not too many changes to some chapters.**

''Speaking''

_''Thoughts''_

**HSF Dreadnought Talon, Bridge**

**In the system of relay 314**

Admiral Orinia stood on the command bridge of the Dreadnought Talon as she stood tall and proud like all Turians should and radiated an aura of authority. She had her talons behind her back, watching her crew work, looking to her data-screen and seen her flotilla in perfect order the 67th patrol fleet. Her fleet. At her command was 81 of the Hierarchy's finest warships patrolling the Asari terminus border, she had 30 cruisers and 50 frigates to support her

Alarm systems suddenly blared. Orinia blinked and looked to her sensor officer Castis'' Report''

Castis looks from his data screen, a look of terror in his eyes remaining composed'' Sensors indicate a large flotilla of pirate vessels, Admiral.''

''I see, and how many and what class of vessels are we looking at''

''We are detecting close to 2000 vessels that just came out the relay, most of them appear to be of Batarian design with other council warships mostly outdated '' Orinia was forced to compose herself at those numbers, she looked towards the system map.'' Take us through the inactive relay designated 314, we can't face that many so we can only hope to lose this armada on the other side. I will take full responsibility but we need to warn High command of this armada.'' She states in a firm voice not giving away how she feels

The crew on the bridge looked at her shocked for a moment before doing as ordered, she looked down_ ''It will cost me my chance in the military but my men will live''_. ''Prepare codes for activation.'' She orders her voice firm hiding her anxiety over breaking the law.

**HSV Dreadnought Domination, Bridge**

**The system of relay 314**

The hegemony funded pirate fleet had just jumped into the system under the command of Porvan Gepnohan. He was deep in thought of the future slaves he would bring to the Hegemony with his great armada that he had gathered and was supported by a few of his government assets, He was suddenly aware of his sensor officer looking at him with fear in his eyes, he smiled at that ''What is it''

He broke eye contact ''We have contacts... sir, there hierarchy only 81 ships on sensors one reads as a dreadnought.'' he says a slight whimper in his voice

Porvan growled. ''Send word to the fleet we must crush them before they warn the Hierarchy!'' anger clear in his voice

The sensor officer nodded, he looked at his station and read something. ''Admiral they are running from us shall we pursue?"

Porvan nodded then he said. ''There heading for that relay we will follow them and we will deal with them and then once they are gone we will launch our raid, But first send word to the rest of the fleet to get me more ships to cover this side of the relay if an issue develops we need to ensure they will not escape take and hold us near that relay we advance once we receive word from the Hegemony.'' He grinned it was a good day to kill Turian scum, they were all meant to serve his kind he would do this for the Hegemony and himself of course.

**Time skip three days**

**Shanxi Defense station, the orbit of Shanxi**

**Captain Alex Montgomery**

**Date: September 09 2257 15:37**

The colonization of Shanxi was well under-way with all defensive forces and stations in place and bunkers and the capital city finally built and people moving in for the last month with the materials arriving weekly. He had a good feeling of his current situation confident that they were safe as he was at the head of a standard defense fleet and that no pirate actions had been occurring in the area at the moment. He looked over the control room and smiled. His new command he hoped that he would not disappoint his old man.

Alex Montgomery was the eldest sibling of his family he had two other siblings both sisters. He had joined the Navy fresh out of high school right at the end of the insurrection. He had been selected to be in charge of the Shanxi defense fleet because of how his skills had impressed the higher ups now with what was standard defense fleet with 35 corvettes for policing actions. His last posting had been on the escort carrier Einstein been an XO four months ago.

At the moment he was enjoying a lovely steak and chips after he had completed all of the reports that were due for the day and was looking forward to the date he had lined up for that evening. He was in his formal navy dress uniform showing his rank clearly, it's clear silver and gold trim mixing well with the overall blue. he had a clean shaving face with his black hair neat in a buzz cut.

''**Captain, we have a situation you are needed in the CIC**'' Came to the announcement over the station's audio systems.

He got up and signaled his waiter to save it for later. He got up and did a light jog up to the CIC which took him a good nine minutes to get to, He enters when the door slid open to see all the personal there he looked towards the stations AI, She was on a holo-table at the moment and had the appearance of a mid-twenties female wearing WW2 American uniform paratrooper gear holding onto an M1 Ga-rand.

'' Irene what's the situation'' his voice clean and crisp.

''The ODP's guarding the inactive relay are reporting that it has begun to show activity'' she states a little confused.

''Get me a connection to command so that we can report this we may have hostiles inbound, spin up the MAC guns and have our people land on the planet if they're not needed here send word to the fleet to go to combat status two'' HE orders his voice carrying a slight amount of worry

''Aye captain'' Irene answers giving off a salute.

**HSF Dreadnought Talon, Bridge**

**Shanxi System**

Orinia stood deep in thought of what was about to happen she knew her chance for survival was low at best. ''Exiting relay in one minute'' The VI said emotionlessly

''Prepare to get us underway for FTL Travel, ''she orders while she looks towards her data screen hoping that her plan of action would work because it was the only chance that her troops had.

''Admiral we have ships and orbital constructs in the system...they do not match any known designs, and some of their larger ships are registering only a small amount of eezo'' She looks sharply to her data-screen and her eyes dilating a little.

''Power to barriers and drop the power from the weapon systems. We don't need to appear hostile and send the first contact bundle!'' She orders her voice calm but strained. She looks down trying to remain composed with the current situation,_ "I just started a Spirits damn first contact scenario and have a Pirate fleet following us, I will be lucky if I end up with a firing squad because of this assuming this new race doesn't just tear into us before those pirates." _

she looked up towards her view screen showing strange constructs and a fleet near the planet all looking both sleek and utilitarian. ''Also prioritize the translation of their language so that we can warn them that we have a pirate armada coming in behind us. ''Castis, what are their ship sizes and numbers it must be a defense fleet?.'' she asks a small amount of nervousness is easily heard in her voice.

''Ma'am the sensors are saying that they have a dreadnought and five medium weight cruisers and eight light cruisers and sixteen frigates with 35 patrol craft Ma'am'' Answers Castis in a jarring voice.

''The orbital constructs 25 000 kilometers out are looking on to us they have weapons systems ma'am,'' shouts Castis his voice going Frantic

''Spirits just keep the weapon systems cold we won't survive this without taking a risk and will need everything we have to fight that Armada.'' She all but shouts in small voice realizing her position.

The entire bridge is silent and tense "Who puts weapons on space constructs these people must be insane, I mean it was deemed too bloody expensive to build" Exclaims one of the bridge crew.

''Ma'am we are receiving a transmission it seems to be a message and first contact package.'' said the communications officer his sub-harmonics showing relief.

**''This is Captain Alex Montgomery, Senior officer of Shanxi defense fleet, of the Systems Alliance, state your intentions while we hope you are peaceful****,**** we will defend ourselves should you force us, we are no strangers to conflict''**

''It would seem by the tone they were using they are likely warning us.'' Says Castis relieved

''ensure it's safe and let's hope we can make at least a partial understanding so that we can warn them'' she states in a calm voice trying to get a grip with the situation.

''It's safe Ma'am'' says Aultis after running a quick scan over the information.

'' let's see it then and see what these people are like we are most likely going to be meeting them in person soon.''

The images that were brought up showed pictures of male and female humans then showing there a form of a greeting which then changed to different pictures of Earth ancient armies up to the modern forces and cities with their flag at the end

Orinia was a little shocked at their appearance of the aliens which called themselves human they looked like Asari with only small differences." why do they look like Asari and it at least it seems they have a strong military culture if those images were anything to go by, I just hope they don't take as long to make decisions I might be here all year then." comments the admiral

''Ma'am we have an incoming hail'' Calls Castis

''Put it through,'' she orders sternly he posture becoming more rigid._ "They could not have figured out our language so fast, could they."_

**Shanxi Defense station, the orbit of Shanxi**

**Captain Alex Montgomery POV**

''Captain the sensors are reporting that 81 vessels of unknown design it would appear we have a first contact situation'' Irene says sounding extremely eager bouncing around in the holo-emitter

''Good send all information that is gathered to high command and what is the status on our reinforcements'' he orders his voice and face giving away no emotion.

''Captain the nearest ships to the system is a single patrol fleet attached to the fifth fleet they are three hours out, and command says that the expedition fleet was scheduled to head through relay 19 they are being diverted to us they will be here in about five days sir.'' Says Stephan his voice strictly professional as he was new and fresh out of Boot-camp.

''Good send word to general Williams to get the civilians into the bunkers and get ready for a possible invasion.'' Orders Alex His voice only giving the slightest hint of worry.

an elderly communications officer says'' Sir we have an incoming information bundle'' his voice calm and reassuring.

''Isolate a station and make sure it's safe and not harmful Irene'' says Alex. _"please don't be hostile at least it seems _their weapons_ are cold now."_

''Sir it appears to be a first contact package'' Irene says relief flooding her voice.

''Good I think it best we return the favor,'' Alex says confidently

''This is Captain Alex Montgomery, Senior officer of Shanxi defense fleet, Of the Systems Alliance State your intentions while we hope you are peaceful, we will defend ourselves should you force us, we are no strangers to conflict'' he says in both a hopeful and slight threatening tone.

''Send that with our first contact bundle and Irene get working on a translation matrix immediately we need to talk to these people'' Alex looks to the projector show us the information they sent us'' he says firm guise of a commander in place.

The Turian first contact package started by showing off the citadel and then all the races that had been discovered and what they were called showing peace and prosperity followed by pictures of the Turian Fleets guarding both planets and the citadel, then came the various Citadel races which ended up garnering a few comments and a bit of shock when the Asari came up.

''It would seem that they are peaceful the question I want to know is why they came through that relay with Their weapons hot, Irene how is the translation going.'' He asks in a questioning tone.

''I have it at 80% completion the information sent had the Prothean language, Captain there may be slight variations but I am confident that you can hold a small conversation with them, Orders?.'' she asks in an eager voice.

''Hail them and see why they ended up on our doorstep'' Alex orders

an image of an alien standing with her bridge crew dressed in their armor, Alex looks to who he assumes is the commander of this fleet with a neutral expression on his face.

''Welcome to Shanxi, why are you here!'' he demands.

**''I am Admiral Orinia of the ninety seventh patrol fleet, we were running from... Slavers who had a larger fleet it was not known that you were here, we were going to attempt to lose them I wish to offer my apologies for causing this incident''** states the admiral sounding only a bit conflicted.

He glares at the Alien. ''I see. Irene send an alert to high command, we have hostiles inbound I want our forces ready yesterday!"

He looks back to the alien, He has a scowl on his face'' Irene allow them through our defense perimeter at the relay we need more people if we have to fight off these damned slavers and alert General Williams to get all the civilians in the bunkers ASAP and those that are not in it are to have weapons Turtle protocol is now in effect as of this moment. Admiral, I want all you have on these slavers weapons systems speed and how long do I have before they get here and most importantly how many of them are there.'' He demands in a tone that ensures no argument and is easy to see that he is enraged.

Orinia stands still and rigid at the way of things just turned out "_How did they figure out our language_, At_ least they are getting ready I just hope they have more ships nearby or they will lose this planet."_ I will send over the information to you.'' she says slightly confused and taken back by the attitude of the commander and how quickly he had acted.

''Good also send whatever ground forces you have to the planet we may need them also I want you here so that we can make a plan to deal with this threat.'' The transmission cut out after his demand.

''just fucking great there are aliens and they still make use of slaves at least it seems the rest of the galaxy is civilized. How the hell did they let slavers build an armada?'' He says exasperated and then looks at Irene. ''Irene have you managed to enter their systems undetected, also keep our weapons focused on them for now.'' He asks as his voice is cold and dead.

''Yes captain I have full access to some of their information network and am sending it to high command as we speak, They are genuine about the coming attack there logs indicate a near full strength fleet on it's way, guess we are going to have to show the rest of the galaxy what were made of I hope we stack up.'' She says with a feral grin on her face with a slight wink at the end.

''That is good prepare an honor guard to meet me at the hanger we will great them in the good old fashion way.'' He orders at first which slowly turns to exasperation.

**Shuttle on route to Shanxi defense station**

**16:47**

The shuttle was dim lit and spacious with so few aboard with only the pilots and guards beside both generals the view of the alien dreadnought growing in size.

''This is a terrible idea Admiral we don't know if we can even trust this species, we just ran into them they are been for too trusting for my liking.'' Says Desolas Arterius his mandibles in a deep frown. ''We just don't know them; I don't like that you are putting us right into their sights why are you being so trusting.'' he grouches. His Armour highly decorated giving away his status as a general.

She looks at him with a critical eye ''We don't have a choice in the matter we either trust them or we end up losing more of our forces trying to hold them off...we need them to help us with this Pirate Armada, also I brought this on them they are clearly angry with us for bringing this conflict to their doorstep and are likely trying to avoid needless conflict.'' she says in a dejectedly while her head drops.

''I still think they won't be much help they must have only just reached interstellar travel since we have yet to run into them and their ships barely contain any Eezo I doubt they're going to be much help.'' He says confidently.

Orinia looks to Desolas and shakes her head. ''If you think like that then we are dead and you can pray to the spirits that we make it out of this because if you did not notice that station has a massive weapon attached to it and it looks as if it can do some real harm to the fleet and we have been mostly stagnant on our weapons development for how long, the phaseton has only gone through nine redesigns in the last 300 years and they were all small improvements we have barely advanced since we met the council it's not hard to catch up to our technology if they're based off the Protheans, all our advancement has been in refinement and improvements to armor lately.'' Orinia states in a firm voice

Desolas was about to reply when the pilot says they are entering their hanger bay ''Admiral you best get ready were landing now.''

Eight guards stand and form a protective perimeter around both the admiral and general as they turn to the shuttle's door as it opens. They begin to walk out they see a long row of soldiers lined up on each side of the ramp with their commanding officer at the end in dress uniform.

Both sides walk to one another upon reaching each other Alex Montgomery salutes followed by a loud sound of boots slamming together and the honor guards' rifles pointing directly up in perfect order. Startling the Turians, though it brings grins to their faces whilst they return their own Turian salute.

''Welcome to the Systems Alliance while it is a pleasure to meet you and that you are peaceful I wish it could have been under better circumstances we will have to make do please follow me, '' he says his Omni tool translating what he says not portraying his grave tone.

Orinia nods and follows the delegation. ''Of course, captain, I must say Captain I am impressed at how easily your people managed to figure out our language, also I am glad your people make use of dreadnoughts to protect your colonies, it may be the difference between our success and defeat,'' Orinia states confidently.

The Humans around her look confused for a moment '' I don't know if that was a translator mistake or you use different types of ship classes but we don't have a dreadnought we only have a heavy cruiser Admiral.'' states the captain only slightly confused.

The Turian delegation stop's and sharply looks to the captain ''What do you mean by it being a Cruiser!" Says one of the Turians sounding horrified.

_"That __is not good if they consider that ship a cruiser that means they have a lot of them_, If_ that is the case that means that they have more large ships nearby that can help, That also means that their mainstay Heavy ships are most likely over the number of vessels allowed in that weight, I guess the politicians are going to be very busy soon.'' _Desolas thinks while he looks over the Humans questionably.

Orinia attempts to make an effort to not show that it affected by the news and says ''well in our terms anything above 800 meters would classify as a dreadnought while your ships are just over that limit by a bit..., I have to ask what would you consider a... my flagship by your standards.'' sounding flustered

_"Please don't say that it would be considered a light dreadnought by your standards I don't want to see more destiny ascension class dreadnought's one of them is enough as it is, the galaxy all ready has enough problems." _Orinia shudders at the thought.

_"I get the distinct feeling that this will cause issues in the future if that is how they reacted to our cruisers been that size at least I now know that our heavy cruisers are close to what they would consider __their __heavy hitters then how would they react to one of our flagships"_ He looks towards them and gives a friendly grin'' I would say that based on its size we would call it a battle cruiser in regards to our ship classifications wonderful ships but nothing quite like a battleship those are a sight to see,'' he says in both a confident and wistful smile on his face.

A sliding door opens into the stations CIC with multiple guards in the room their eyes firmly on their visitors. ''well enough with the pleasantries we can leave the talking to the diplomats right now we need a plan of action''

gives a sharp look to the Turians once he reaches the hole-table he begins to address everyone in the room. ''We currently have a single patrol fleet en route that is 3 hours out we can expect them to arrive before the pirates, the expedition fleet which was the nearest main fleet is five days out while the 5th fleet is a week out from gathering enough of it task forces and arriving here which means that we have to provide support or stop this pirate fleet.''

The captain looks to the admiral "what number of ships are we looking at and what types I have yet to go through the data and do not know their capabilities completely except that they are out of date and of poor quality, so brief us on what we are up against.'' he asks in a firm tone.

Orinia nods and moves to stand where the captain is and tries to maintain her nerves at having to brief all those present after the information she had just received and how they would react. ''from the scans that my ships managed to get before we went through the relay we discovered that there fleet has a single dreadnought class vessel and only six hundred cruiser weight vessels with the remainder been frigate weight from our sensors whilst we were in transit. We detected that they started their own transit two days after us with roughly a thousand transports but considering that they wanted to catch us they will ignore the safety restrictions we believe that they will arrive in system at least 18 hours from now she steps back and nods to the captain.

''That's good we have time then; Irene please bring up a system map'' Alex orders.

''Yes captain''. her voice carrying great enthusiasm.

The Turians took a moment before they realized what had said that and General Desolas immediately looked to the holo-table ''YOU USE AI'S ARE YOU ALL INSANE YOU WILL GET US ALL KILLED DISABLE THAT THING NOW!...'' his voice strained and panicked as He starts to reach for his pistol and all of a sudden, all the guards in the room have weapons aimed at the Turians who keep their weapons lowered while Orinia orders her guards to maintain their positions.

He gives a cold Glare at the Turian General.'' We have used AI for over a hundred years and have had no issues with them they are citizens of the Systems Alliance though assuming some of your reactions I am going to go out on a limb and say that you have bad experiences with AI'' he gestures to the guards to stand down

"you may see this as an issue we do not... so deal with it. We have a bigger problem mainly the Huge slaver Armada that is heading this way at this moment I am having our craft deploy nuclear mines to inflict damage on _them. ''At least they did not know about the mines that were already at the relay. We cannot let them learn all of our secrets and it's best to not let them know of how far we have advanced our stealth vessels are, must be better than there's though.''_

''Also you gave us the numbers of their fleet, I want to know how many strike-craft that they have I assume that they will have large amounts of them with a fleet of that size.''

Desolas was enraged and before he could go on another rant Orinia silences him with a glare and looks to the Captain her features schooled and neutral ''Yes we can let the Politicians discuss that issue''

Receiving glares from the humans ''We still have to deal with the approaching fleet but they will not have any strike craft except for from the single dreadnought they are ineffective against main ships we don't field that many we only use them for planetary support, at the moment we only have about a hundred and fifty within our fleet'' She says confused by the question.

She receives a raised eyebrow from the captain '' Are you saying that you do not know the danger of strike-craft if that is the case, we will have to educate you people and the pirates in how truly dangerous they are.'' He says with a bloodthirsty grin appearing_ ''This battle just got a whole lot easier.''_

He looks to General Desolas giving him a hard look. "General have your men deployed to the ground we will be deploying our forces to the ground as well you will coordinate with general Williams on the ground to deal with those that are landing. We will not defend the planet we will be doing something a little more unorthodox. They have us outnumbered so we will lose if we try to defend we are going to have to support the ground and we cannot do that if we are dead.'' he brings up a System map and highlights five locations in the system.

The first location highlighted is a gas giant in system 215 million kilometers from the relay. ''We will have our heavy Cruisers positioned here to hit any ships that come through the relay. With twenty of your frigates and two of ours as an escort.'' He pans the map to the second location Highlighted was Shanxi.

''We will have our carriers along with our destroyers for escort stationed near the station with orders to withdraw from combat should things go south, the corvettes will remain to defend the ODP's.'' The Third location marked is behind the relay.

''We will have our stealth Destroyers and Frigates here to launch an attack on their dreadnought and some of their cruisers. They will pull out after they start to move to intercept them and harass them over the battle.''

The fourth and fifth Locations were both Hundred and eighty million Kilometers from the relay in opposite directions and two hundred kilometers from the Gas Giant. The Gas Giant was between Shanxi and the relay but still enough room to fire the ODP's.'' These two locations we will position twenty-three of our light cruisers and thirty of our frigates here, these task-forces will be made a mix up of half of one another frigates and cruisers to provide a bit of diversity, Questions?'' He looks around the room mostly focusing on the Turians.

Oriana looks at the plan trying to Calculating their chances. '' What is the purpose of splitting so many of our forces around the system, would it not be better to position them for hit and run attacks or a fighting withdrawal?'' She asks not sounding all too confident about the plan.

He looks at her and gives a small nod. '' The reason is simple we need our Strike-craft to have time to do the most damage to this Fleet also our mines should scramble there sensors for a bit, while this happens we will target their battlecruiser as well as their cruisers the more we wipe out the better chances we have of picking off their leadership, this will, in turn, disorganize them I hope for this to give us more time before they organize. Then once they get a move on whichever group they pursue will FTL jump away to a new location and continue to harass them. The best possible outcome of this is that they fragment and hunt our groups at the same time bringing down their numbers, From what I could read up on in the information you sent that their ships were sub-par at best requiring roughly two to one odds to win an engagement.'' He says confidently ending off looking at expecting an answer.

Desolas nods at the not at all happy about the Al's a light scowl shown adorning his face. ''That is correct and the Batarians are not the best tacticians when it comes to a fight, we may just win this but it will be a long shot.'' He says before letting out a sigh.

Alex looks around then nods. ''Good, we will do our best but for now, we will prepare good luck, everyone, He dismissed the Turians and left to a viewing panel and looked towards the relay a grim distant look in his eyes. _''A lot of us won't make it out of this but I guess it is time to see how well we stack up against some alien pirates, I hope we hold the line well if not there may not be an Alliance for our people.''_


	2. Chapter 2

**Shanxi System**

**Shanxi Defense Station ten minutes after the war council**

**POV**

**Admiral Orinia**

She currently stood at one of the viewing screens looking down at the planet. Her red and black Armour glinted in the light as she focused on the human and Turian shuttles going to and from the planet.

Desolas walked up to her so that he too could see the view, after mulling over the information they had gained while been on the human station. ''I don't like this Admiral, this plan is to risky and I don't like the size of their ships if the Ai takes over were going to be an even worse situation than with the Geth.'' He states scanning over the human drop ships.

She looks at him giving him a small nod. ''I know, he said battleships were larger than our Dreadnoughts and by the sounds of it they have more than a few, it doesn't matter at the moment, we have a battle in coming and if the Captain's information is correct well be getting five more Dreadnoughts. That is good but it also bothers me because of the number of ships in a patrol fleet.'' She says warily watching as a squadron of fighters return to the station.

Desolas nods while signaling for her to follow him. ''I found the hanger where our shuttle is and where their strike-craft and drop ships are leaving, you might want to see what they consider a dropship their large and have more weapons than our gunships, I feel if we end up engaging these humans we will have a problem.'' He says quickly while leading her down a corridor their guards surrounding them.

While looking around the relatively narrow corridor she notes the large number of kill-zones throughout the station and nods. ''I agree, they seem to think they know a lot about warfare and I might agree with them but their young so I doubt it but they could give someone a few problems. I hope they're not too large they might make a great client race at least they have the spirit to help us at least.'' She says confidently while noting a junction up ahead with almost no cover.

Desolas nods taking a turn into a hanger filled with humans loading supplies for the planet and the fleet into what appears massive gunships there Transport not too far away. ''Yes, they could but they seem a little aggressive which could cause us a few problems and we have enough of that from the commonwealth.'' He says sounding slightly annoyed.

She gives a sharp nod at that focusing on one of the Human drop ships. ''Agreed, though if they have so many destiny ascension class Dreadnoughts it might benefit the council and finally give us an edge that we lost in the last few years. I mean look at those dropships.'' She points to one of the landed Thunder-hawk Dropships. ''If we can get them as a standard replacement design you won't lose so many troops to the hand.'' She says while inspecting the same Thunder-hawk.

While inspecting the Dropship she can't but think of why they needed new designs_'' The black hand who would have thought a breakaway element from ninety years ago would be such a problem today. Always pushing us when they get a chance and how they manage to hold such advanced ships is beyond me.''_

while thinking back to one of the few engagements were the Hierarchy and commonwealth engaged a small fleet of their ships. It had been a nightmare three hundred ships against sixty should have been easy but they had lost just over half their task-force fighting them and it was mostly Council ships. She hoped that they wouldn't show up now to help these slavers.

Desolas growls. ''I heard that the seventeenth legion engaged them about a month ago on a fringe colony, we won but only a third of the legion is left and won't be deployed for a long time and I agree with what you said. I think most of our losses when facing them now is the redeployments with all of their ambushes taking out our shuttles and hitting our landing zones. He says anger leaking into his voice at the loss of so many good Turians.

She looks at him critically while thinking of something.'' let's get back to the Talon, we need to see if we can contact the council and then we need to go over a few things there.'' She says sounding distracted taking the lead to the shuttle.

**Shanxi Defense Station**

**POV**

**Captain Alex**

He was wearing his formal Captains uniform in a dimly lit CIC surrounded by people coordinating plans throughout the system. He watched the screens as the Turian delegation walked back to the hanger with their transport moving to pick them up. ''Irene what have you found out about our guests.'' He requests looking over to the holo-table.

Irene appears giving off a quick salute.'' I managed to gather their non-classified information along with a few interesting files, I did not attempt to break their firewall to avoid any issues for the upcoming battle. ''I have so far discovered that they represent the Turian Hierarchy which is apart of an alliance of multiple species. There are three large political entities which are the Council the Federation and Terminus warlords. The group that is attacking us belong to the warlords of the Terminus which is a loose alliance of various alliances.'' She says sounding slightly curious.

He nods but shakes his head.'' That is good to know so that we can send it back to Arcturus but it's not helpful at the moment what can you tell me about their ships so far.'' He says not letting the panic or incredulity show. _''Why the hell is there a faction of pirates listed as a bloody Political entity.''_

Irene brings up the Turian fleet in system and brings up three models. ''There are only three types of ships in their fleet from what I could gather and no stealth ships either. Their largest ship appears to be a battle-cruiser analog but 100 meters shorter than ours. They appear to focus on their main spinal cannon as the main weapon and make use of a laser-based point defense system. The Threat designation is low for our strike-craft from the density of their placement, the scans of their Armour shows us that it is extremely thin compared to ours at only ten meters and the Eezo reading indicate that they still use Kinetic barriers. They also have what appear some tubes which are either torpedoes or missiles it is unknown at this time.''

She then enlarges the Turian Cruiser. ''This is a light cruiser or heavy destroyer analog which appears to have the same principle as their battle-cruiser most likely escort ships. They also appear to hold cargo most likely small amounts of troops and strike-craft it also appears to be the main fighter of their fleet and has five meters of armor.'' Removing the cruiser and replacing it with their frigate Analogue.

'' This appears to deviate slightly with a focus more on their point defense systems and missile systems and are meant to act as a harassment element in the fleet as well as a reconnaissance vessel, From what I can gather from the scans we have done they appear to really more on speed than that of their defenses. The estimates show that should these slavers jump in close to us we will tear them apart with our secondary weapon systems and missiles, they will have the advantage at extreme range engagements and will most likely avoid our weapons fire though our strike-craft should be able to level the playing field in that area.'' She states factually while going over the data.

''This, of course, is guesswork and will be revised after the coming battle.'' She says almost sounding confident.

He snorts at that and gives her a resigned look. ''That is assuming we make it out of this fight and I don't like our chances, They outnumber us around six to one so it will be a hard fight not to mention we don't know where we stand on how good our shields will hold up or how good our weapons are.'' He says while considering something. ''Irene what is their armor made up of and is it better than ours?'' He asks quietly lost in thought.

Irene blinked and brought up the sensor logs to show the information for the captain. ''No captain, scans indicate that their armor while holding Titanium and other elements in small amounts seem to rely on less mass intensive materials for some reason. I think it might be possible that since they don't deviate from what appears to be Prothean Technology it could mean their reliant on Eezo unlike us and have a weakness in that area. They appear to also be marginally slower than us at accelerating but seem to maneuver better than us by twenty percent.'' She lists off almost mechanically.

He quickly goes over some rough numbers. _''That is good we might stand a chance if these ships are as bad as they say we might not have that many issues dealing with them.'' _He turns around to leave the tactical room. ''That's good let me know when the reinforcements arrive, I have some personal effects to take care of. He says

**HSF Talon hanger**

**POV**

**General Desolas**

He paced around the deck as he looked over the data been sent to the forces that had so far landed on the planet. He was surrounded as other Turians worked at their stations loading shuttles and transports with supplies for the ground operation and giving out orders. His forces on the planet were already put to work building a supply base near the human HQ and watching the humans prepare. _''The humans are a problem that needs to be pacified, they will bring the Hierarchy down if they have time to build.'' _He thought going through all the possible things that could harm the galaxy with the human's disregard for common sense. He was already planning on writing a report to the council to get the humans under control before they could cause another Geth rebellion. He was considering having the Hierarchy take them as a client race for the betterment of the galaxy.

Bringing up his Omni-tool to show the information of their Dreadnought that was over the planet he looked at it and nodded at it, they may have been a young race but they defiantly knew how to make warships. The Dreadnought was covered in so many secondary weapons. He doubted how useful they would be in this fight there were most likely primitives with barely any warships and would need his peoples help. He left for the hanger not long after his musings to ensure that his people would come out of this alive.

**HSF Talon CIC**

**POV**

**Admiral Orinia**

The CIC was filled with Turians going over information received as well as simulations to try and fill her in with information. At the moment all Orinia could do was pace around the CIC trying to figure out a plan and getting nowhere. She went over to her station and brought up the in-depth scans of the Humans ships and stations.

While the levels of eezo were low they were getting strange readings and it made her nervous. The only thing she liked about the scan was there lack of Guardians lasers. Her thoughts turned to much more pressing matters while wondering why it had to be now of all times. _''Dammit why did command have to pull half my fleet out for a refit two months ago and those stupid Asari for giving the Hierarchy so many issues on trying to aid in the revitalization so many of our old ships and sitting on __their__ arse avoiding sending their fleets to help us patrol the outer systems.'' _She thought while opening up a new file showing what her fleet was to be like after their retrofit.

The file brought up showed a Turian cruiser that had specifications such as, better Armour which was twice as thick than her current ships while also been the most advanced type been silaris armor that had been invented about ten years ago. She could not hide the small smile of glee come to her face as she read about how many extra guardian lasers were added to the ships at four times as many as her current cruisers they would butcher anything that got close. Though she felt a small amount of doubt at how effective the new refit would do any good against the human's ships who seemed to want enough guns that would make a krogan salivate and enough armor to make sure they survived.

She closed the files deciding that she was just trying to calm her nerves at the human's ships. She had already gone over the refit a couple dozen times since they were notified. Looking up she went up towards the cockpit so she could see the arrival of this patrol fleet. The humans had told her it would be about the time of their arrival. Her thoughts drifted off to what the Hierarchy would think of all of this.

''Ma'am were getting strange readings in sector twenty-nine.'' Reported Castis from his station He says sounding confused. He has the viewing screen zoom towards the sector for her so that they can see what's going on.

Ships started to appear in the area surrounded by a strange blue aura bubble that quickly dissipated. While it was similar to mass effect FTL they did not come from real space but the Turians failed to notice this and just assumed their sensors were acting up.

Orinia could see that they resembled the defense fleet but what caught her eye was the large Dreadnoughts main gun which was highlighted alongside other pieces of information such as it's other weapons.

The shocked voice of Castis grabbed her attention. ''Ma'am, The new dreadnought, the sensors are reporting that it is the same size as an Asari one Ma'am. Though how the thing is moving at the speed it its is beyond me Ma'am it has some very dense and thick Armour.'' He looks over his sensors while also trying to get rid of a strange anomaly that keeps popping up.

She gives a nod while watching as a 3d model of the new Dreadnought is broken down. The first thing that stood out among most of the human ships were how many Engines on their ships and, the size of their engines that were easily five times that of most ships and it showed with how fast their ships accelerated. ''Castis log their arrival and start to get a package assembled for the Council to view on their current ship analogs also send me a report if anything strange happens.

After giving off a few more orders she left the CIC and walked to the elevator while having her Omni-tool out and started to assemble a message for both the Council and Hierarchy. When she arrived at her Quarters the message was mostly complete and just required her opinion one their Warships and what she thought of the possible damage they could do.

She arrived at a small room that was relatively small with only a single bed as well as a table to do her reports along with a small shelf for personal effects. She went over and powered up her Private terminal and took a seat. The first thing she brought up was their smallest ships. They appeared to be Policing craft just short 100 meters, there were two of them noted down one with more main guns and missiles while the second one showed more point defense systems, she marked them down as a non-threat only meant to deal with pirates and scanning their deployed systems.

When she brought up the two frigates she noticed one had the standard designation for a stealth ship. _''Spirits, why did they have to have stealth ships that just makes writing this report worse because it means I have to answer all the bloody questions when I get back anyway.'' _She sighed and then laughed when she imagined how the Salarians would react to not be the only ones to make mass use of stealth ships. She Noted their general makeup once again similar to the Alliances corvettes marked them as a low threat like most frigates of any fleet though she did note they had near dreadnought level armor amounts.

The next ship she brought up was the human's Light Cruisers they seemed more armored than most ships of their size. The next thing she marked were their engines which seemed to mark them as some kind of harasser. She also marked that they had strange areas around the ship that seemed to hold some kind of interior pod. Once she was done marking a few other points on the ship she marked it down as a moderate threat to their larger vessels but also had it marked as dangerous to frigates. They seemed to be built for that she pondered where the humans would have learned to build a ship like that. Shaking her head and moving to the next ship.

The Heavy cruiser by the council's standards showed up over her Omni-tool. She made notes on how it seemed to have a large amount of armor comparable to their light cruisers but focused more on their secondary weapons. While going over it she noted how dangerous they could possibly be to Council Dreadnoughts because of how much Armour they had and marked it down as a relatively high threat to same weight class ships.

She closed her notes for the time been and contacted Desolas wanting to check on his progress. It did not take long to connect to him and it showed that he was currently in a Prefab command center located on the planet.

He barely acknowledged her only giving her a quick sign that he was in the middle of something, it only took him a moment before he signed off on something. ''Admiral what do you require?'' He asked sounding a little off.

''I don't need anything at the moment Desolas besides a quick report on your end, I was just busy writing up a report on the human's Warships and needed to air some thoughts and wanted to compare notes on what their ground forces look like. I am going, to be honest General it's not looking good in the long run for us there ships are giving off strange readings and the amount of Armor of their ships if we end up in a slugging match I don't think it will be good it also speaks of their raw materials needed for those ships.'' She says sounding tired.

Desolas shaking his head not looking like he believes it. ''Doubtful, They have to be young since were only meeting now it is likely they only have a small fleet, that is not to mention those upgrades we recently made are incredible I doubt they're gonna be a problem, we just have to get out of this and bring them into the fold, sure their young but once they're a client race we will have another race who is at least Militaristic.'' He says unconcerned and confident he is correct when He was silent for a moment before Orinia could answer he spoke thoughtfully.'' The thing that bothers me is that from what I can see is there like us a lot of them have Military training and I don't know of any other race that we have made contact with that was so familiar. I mean if you think about it the only other true Military race beside us is the Batarians and they don't come close to us been cowards and their slave armies, the Krogan are excellent shock troops but lack variety in tactics,the humans though from what I can see down here will be impressive.'' He says not sounding at all bothered about a possible threat.

She gives him a look of concern. ''Don't underestimate them Desolas they know the ways of war by the look of things. They are likely to surprise us also what can you tell me about their Planetary forces I might need to add that to my report.'' She asks while sounding concerned.

He gives a slight shrug.'' They have a lot of what can be expected except for Planetary forces, there are a lot more vehicles here than I thought, they also seem to plan to harassment on the landings but from what I could gather they prepping a lot of kill-zones not to mention most of the Civilians are already in the Bunkers. There Quick and efficient and seem to know what they're doing they are also setting up improvised emplacements and ambush tunnels I know that whoever fights them will have a hard fight, I have to admit I am impressed with them so far.'' He says giving off a slight tone of grudging respect and reluctance.

Orinia liked the report but the way in which Desolas looked while giving off the report was setting off a few warnings.'' I see, that's all, for now, Desolas let me know of any large changes also gather a little more information on the humans before the Batarians arrive, just don't waste any of your time in preparing we can gather more information later.'' She closed the link while sending out a few messages to his support staff to keep an eye on him.

Returning to her previous report she brought up the Humans Light Dreadnought. The Diagram that showed up caused her to worry not only was it Heavily armed its armor alone would take a massive beating just to knock it out but the number of weapons caused her to worry of getting anywhere near it would be suicide. She did not doubt that in a stand-up fight that her Dreadnought would come out okay not only would it likely need a dry-dock to fix her own ship after that confrontation but would likely cause severe damage. She marked it down as a severe threat to anything other than a Dreadnought-class vessel.

She brought up the last ship that they had seen so far to enter the system The Humans Battle-cruiser. The Humans Heavy Dreadnought she marked as an extreme threat and had it classed as a prime target for any engagements. The first thing she made notes on where it spirits damned armor that it had and that it would probably take the Destiny Ascension class to even remotely take the ship on head to head, she then worked on how to describe that it had enough weapons both primary and secondary for it to be designated as an Alpha Threat to any fleet.

She sealed up her quick summary of the Humans ships and then made notes on how the Human Warships had excessive amounts of armor attached along with massive engines and weapons and that they should not be taken lightly. She also noted that for ships to be built with both that size and armor would require a large reserve of Heavy meal mines. The last thing she made note of was that it was highly refined Titanium which was rare and was likely better than the councils armor.

She shut her Omni-tool off and decided that she should get some rest and a good meal, she had broken out the top-quality meal rations so that her troops at least had a good last day because she doubted that many of her troops would make it out of this alive.


	3. Chapter 3

**Note: If i am asked a question i will reply if i can and will most likely explain it in the next chapter in general.**

**To the question of Turians of thinking this is the human homeworld: They have always referd to the Humans as young meaning new to space travel and have a small number of colonies and a small fleet they can see it is a colony but assume that it is one of the few that humanity has. This is because of the vessels protecting the planet.**

**Shanxi System 2257 September 10**

**Captain Alex Montgomery**

**Battle-Cruiser Resolute**

He stood aboard the CIC it was dimly lit a dark blue indicating that they were ready for battle. He stood at the Holo-table which was overlooking his fleet of 238 vessels eighty-one of which were from the Aliens arrayed in their battle plan. He only had two battle-cruisers and five heavy cruisers he looked to the tactical table and looked at the Escort carriers he may have only had 26 of them _but it's what we may need. "Our only hope is that our plan stalls them so that we can win this and that the minefield will even the gap enough to win this fight._ _We may not win this fight but I will make sure these bastards pay for __their__victory in their own blood.''_ He thought feeling comfort in his jet black Armour and only slightly Confident in that he would make them pay.

''Captain they will be arriving within 10 minutes according to our sensors on the outer edge of the system'' Rebeca says seriously an AI that was extremely dedicated to accurate readings he had discovered. He nods and takes a deep breath.

''Launch all strike-craft and announce general quarters we will make these bastards pay, open ship-wide comm's'' He orders with an air of confidence and dread.

''To all of you in the fleet, today is the day that we do battle against an Alien race for the first time they do not know us, but we do know what we face today and they come to us for what. SLAVERY! we once sold our own kinsmen into doing such a vile practice that we once had but our ancestors they saw what it truly was, a poison to our society. We are the SYSTEMS ALLIANCE NAVY the enemy is at the gate, I know that many of us will not see tomorrow but, I do know that we will not go quietly into the night for every one of us they kill we shall pay them back ten-fold! We shall not falter; we will give no quarter; they have chosen the path of damnation so we shall give them their reward.'' He finishes his speech with pure confidence taking a deep breath.

''LIBERTY OR DEATH!.'' He shouts.

Across the entire system, there was one response'' LIBERTY OR DEATH!.''He smiled and turned to the tactical table he had a battle to win.

**Admiral Orinia**

She had just listened to the human's speech and was both invigorated and a little speechless, she heard one the helmsmen say'' Spirits they sound almost excited for the coming fight are they like Krogan.'' a bunch of people voiced there agreement she could only shake her head at that.

She looked to the tactical display'' I wonder why the Humans were so insistent that it would be their strike-craft that will win this day I mean they seem useless to have you ever heard of anything like this.'' she looks to her support staff and they just shake their heads.

''This is race will be good allies for the hierarchy or they will be a client race because I find they are kind of like us militaristic but I would also have to say that they are like the Krogan who looks forward to a fight where we are so badly outnumbered.'' She asks no one in particular and just sighs after awhile. ''well them apparently, open comm's to our fleet.'' she says slightly resigned to the coming battle.

''Turian's of the hierarchy today we stand beside a new race who we do not know and face impossible odds together, to face one of our most constant foes, We may not be many but this is our sacred duty we stake our honor and that of the Hierarchy for this battle today alongside these brave soldiers, WE WILL HOLD THE LINE, We are Turian we do not break for we are the best military in the galaxy we will show these pirate scum the error of their ways, we will show the humans how we fight today so let us not bring shame to our families.'' she gives her speech filled with zeal and confidence.

**Admiral Porvan**

''Admiral the Frigates you sent ahead have just arrived, they are reporting the Turians and unknown vessels numbering just over 200 they report...7 dreadnought vessels admiral!'' Shouts his sensor operator.

''It does not matter we have the numbers and I doubt these unknowns will be any challenge they are all weak compared to the might of the Batarian Hegemony they will be showing the error of the error of there ways when they are at my feet broken and bloody as our slaves.'' He snidely remarks.

''Admiral we are leaving the relay in five minutes what formation shall we...'' The Xo is cut off from a call from the comm's officer.

''Admiral the scouts are being engaged by...!long-range fire they are reporting a large amount of strike craft of moving to their position.'' He says frantically.

''If the captains are unable to deal with pathetic annoyances, I will have them executed there should be no problem with pathetic strike-craft.'' He snarks at his crew.

''Sir scout force is no longer reporting in'' Says the confused officer sounding completely baffled.

''!WHAT DO YOU MEAN THEY ARE NO LONGER REPORTING IN'' " He angrily demands. _''It must have been a _minefield_ only thing that could have wiped them out so quickly good thing it was just them we have more than enough to deal with these new slaves"_

**Captain Alex Montgomery**

He watched the tactical table as the Eight hundred frigates and fifty Cruisers moved into the minefield he gave a nod to Rebeca.'' do it.'' and a second sun was born where the frigates were, a satisfied smile on his face

''All contacts destroyed Captain.'' States Rebeca a maniacal grin on her holographic face.

''Good have our strike-craft lay in wait near the relay the main force will be here soon so order them to target their frigates after we take out their battle-cruiser we need to reduce their anti-strike-craft capabilities and sensor range if we are to see this through, the real fight is about to begin, have this broadcast to the hostile leader in Turian .''Welcome to Shanxi we welcome you in the traditional manner of your kind we hope you enjoy your lead-filled holiday.'' He says jovially.

''Have all weapon batteries fire on possible exit path's I want as many of them dead before they can organize their systems will be going to hell with all that radiation coupled with our ECM countermeasures,'' he commands the fleet.

shells leave their MAC cannons while strike-craft are alerted to the friendly munitions from there AI assistants and onboard VI's.

''Captain they have arrived''. Rebeca the AI said looking down the scope of her rifle and pulling her trigger and the ships main cannon firing her third shot at a cruiser the fleet followed their orders and all batteries fired on designated targets.

''Captain their returning fire it seems inaccurate for the moment no losses yet enemy have lost fifty of their frigates to the first barrage and the station and ODP's are beginning their bombardment, it would also seem that their fleet received reinforcements around a thousand more sir.'' She reports keeping her voice carefully contained.

''I see. Good have the Resolute take the front with the Herald and Night-gale we will use our heavy hitter's to take as many rounds as possible I want them to cycle with the Frontier and Utopia when their shields drop below 15% keep the fleet as dispersed as possible make us the biggest target, time till our strike-craft hit their lines and what's the status on task force dagger.'' He orders

''They will be launching their assault in a moment Captain and are likely to succeed.'' reports a comm's officer his voice slightly stressed.

A volley of inaccurate mass accelerator rounds passes around his task-force while the others are ignored a stray round from a frigate hit's the Herald dropping her shields by half a percent which quickly is recharged. They return fire with their own volley knocking out another thirty frigates.

''Have them switch to the hostile Cruisers once their objective is done and bug out once it gets too hot'' states the captain as he watches the battle unfold on the sensors.

**Shanxi System space battle**

The defense fleet moved around staying at a distance executing evasive maneuvers avoiding all the fire that the enemy fleet put out while the defense fleet that was split into four assault groups while their carriers remained out of range while the Hermes stealth frigates and ten Artemis destroyers. They continued on their mission getting close enough to launch a massive missile volley into the hostile fleet but while they waited, they provided targets for long-range artillery support from the ODP's and defense station in orbit.

Fighter and Bomber wings kept at the edge of their formation launching their ordnance on the outer edges of their formation but close enough to avoid most of their point defense. While further away long-range missiles and secondary weapons fired in volleys filling up sensors for the Hierarchy and Batarian fleets.

The Two task-forces of cruisers continued their crossfire slowly killing off The Batarian fleet. While the Batarian Fleet continued to reorganize while firing on the large Dreadnought in the system.

The Batarian fleet began to split apart to close on the multiple task groups after losing over a thousand frigates and four hundred cruisers. The Batarians no longer affected by radiation was now able to target the defense fleet with little issue.

**Admiral Porvan**

He growled at the number of his ships lost because of that blasted jamming. Though he could not keep the smile that appeared on his face as another wave of smaller pirate bands arrived. ''Send word to the transports that are coming through in an hour for them to jump towards the Planet and land. We will clear up this problem up soon.'' He says while his ship shakes from yet another missile impact or glancing blow he didn't care. ''Have the fleet split up to go after those ships near the planet and those Dreadnought's, we will take care of those cruisers later and...'' He would never finish his orders because strike-force Dagger would launch their attack shocking the fleet into inaction.

**Space Battle**

Strike force dagger unleashed a volley of thirty thousand missiles into the Batarian formation mostly focused on the Dreadnought and its surrounding escort, a large number of these missiles would connect and decimate close to a hundred ships alongside the Dreadnought.

Sensor logs would later show that the swarm missiles while effective did little in the way of any true damage while their Chimera missiles would do moderate damage and only numbering a quarter of the volley this would allow a strategy to be drawn on what load outs future ships would use.

While the strike-craft of the carrier group continued to launch wave after wave of the deadly ordinance at the fleet but began to take heavy point defense fire doing minimal damage to the craft but the large amounts of Guardian lasers were starting to cause fewer munitions to reach their targets while the strike-craft were slowly dwindling by having to be repaired.

While the Defense task-force managed to devastate the Batarian fleet it was slowly becoming apparent that they would not win against close to two thousand additional ships had arrived to reinforce the first fleet of two thousand that had arrived.

ships blinked out of existence as they advanced on the Alliance positions and continued to lay out thick levels of bombardment, While the Defense task-force had yet to lose any of their ships they were all showing signs of prolonged combat. Their ships were starting to run hot as heat sinks and systems began to marginally slow down. Their barriers and shields either starting to collapse from sustained fire or their vessels having hull breaches venting atmosphere or signs of missing armor. While the Alliances Strike wings continued to hammer the outer layer of the Batarian fleet and managed to cripple a large number of vessels.

**Captain Alex**

''Captain Shields are at 20% integrity we can't handle this much fire the Reaver is venting Atmosphere and is pulling out to Shanxi while her escort is pulling off and supporting the other battle groups.'' Came Rebecca's voice sounding overwhelmed.

''Captain the Turians Frigates are almost gone they only have the talon and eight of their Frigates for the escort for the task-force'' Shouts the Comm's officer her voice sounding scared.

''Have them pull out and protect our carriers the rest of the fleet will cover them; we will be pulling out as well to Shanxi. Status of our Light cruiser task force!'' As he barks while this happens the Resolute's barriers fall and they take a volly he is knocked around in his chair

The ship takes another impact to her hull and no alarms sound. ''They are currently free to move and are hunting down the last of the groups sent to engage them and will regroup with us at Shanxi.'' reports Rebecca over the Audio systems. ''Captain they are trying to overwhelm my cyberwarfare systems I am holding them at bay but if any more of their ships focus on us I will have to let them into non-critical systems.'' Rebecca reports sounding urgent.

''The Reaver is nearly out of combat but letting her secondary batteries take names, and we just lost the Herald who is also starting to pull out while the night gale still has her shields and are pushing deep into the enemy formation and will initiate an in-system jump and regroup later. The Frontier is damaged with one of her engines and is preparing to jump away. They are reporting that they will cover us while we regroup and will be covered by the Utopia'' reports Rebecca her voice becoming slightly glitchy. The ship is shaking heavily for a moment by a few combined hits setting off alarms for deck seven indicating a small breach.

The ship continues to shake as more accelerator rounds impact the ship setting off more alarms. ''The Dagger strike-force is ready to launch a volley to give us time Captain and have managed to get a lock and are close enough to the new enemy battle-cruiser and are in the process of destroying it the rest of the fleet is spread out and trying to take as many vessels before they pull out also heat levels from the reactors and are at 13% before we have to cool off in a timely manner.'' From the captain of the ship his voice not sounding all that bothered indicating his former experiences.

The Resolute's armor still holds firmly in place as it continues to take a beating from multiple ships. There are small holes in the armor where the Batarian have focused breaching a few decks, this causes power to flicker in some sections of the ship while also venting atmosphere. They would be the second last ship to jump away followed by the Frontier.

The battle only lasts Thirteen hours in which the majority of the Defense fleet is damaged and pulled behind the planet of Shanxi to conduct field repairs with losses centered around strike craft and badly damaged or lost frigates. The Defense platforms are the last to fall silent in the battle near the relay.

The Batarian who came off worse by losing both their Dreadnoughts along with extensive casualties among there Cruisers and frigates and only winning because of the three thousand extra vessels that arrived. Their fleet only made up of seven hundred cruisers and nine hundred frigates all damaged in varying degrees. While the Transports sent to the planet were gutted by defenses around the planet. The second and third wave Transports hid behind the gas giant with the remaining fleet to reorganize its forces.

**Admiral Orinia**

The bridge of the talon has sparks flying around it with some consoles flickering only a few of them working and the bridge crew sporting injuries in varying degrees Orinia looks at the view screen of the approaching fleet that had taking time to lick its wounds, human strike-craft waves continued to return some damaged and them refusing to allow repairs while others set up sensors and screened the area. ''Tuvia what is the status of the fleet and what of the human's ships.'' asks Orinia her voice strained and tired.

''Ma'am all of our ships are reporting damage and engineering is reporting that our aft kinetic barriers are damaged and we only have around 70 percent engine power and the main guns heat sink is slightly damaged it can only fire at half the standard rate, of seven seconds the human battle group is still mostly intact but has only a few vessels that are truly combat capable. Then their carriers are reporting that their strike-craft are still mostly there but they say that their all damaged they reported that only 113 of their strike-craft are fully operational while another 2200 are still combat capable and around 1500 of them are in need of field repairs, and around 400 in need of at least a full day and a half before they are combat capable, and are reporting the loss of around 600 of their strike craft'' reports Castis his voice showing signs of fatigue.

'' Well tell them that to pull back for now and save their strike-craft for later we have seen how dangerous they are to the enemy fleet we will need them for the last push before we jump to our assembly area no point in sending them in without support.''

_"__The human strike-craft an interesting idea that worked a little too well for my liking they tore apart so much of the enemy fleet even when outnumbered ,they did more damage to that fleet than even what we could do with the number we had__;__ by all rights we should have only destroyed a quarter of __their__ fleet being so badly outnumbered but the humans."_ She shivers at the thought of how the fight in space went for the batarians.

She had severely underestimated the Humans, she thought that their ships would be good at soaking up damage she never imagined they could be so destructive. The battle was devastating to her she knew to engage a human ship they would need more than she previously thought not to mention the more worrying problem. The need to build these ships and munitions would mean they have an extensive economy alone. The fact that the casualties were around her outdated fleet did not help with the fact the humans only lost some of their lighter vessels and they still retreated. She had seen the sensor log for one of their frigates close to eighty percent was damaged but still went FTL and was currently out of system getting repaired by its remaining crew.

Looking out at the view screen that showed the Human fleet as shuttles moved around dropping off supplies for the repair crews. They worked fast and diligent patching hull breaches and fixing their weapons that were damaged. She doubted that her people would be able to get so many ships working on damage control so quickly. It seemed that all the Humans were capable engineers.

The thing that she kept going to was sensor records showing that some of the Humans smaller Munitions did not activate the pirate's barriers. That bothered her the more she saw of the Humans danger the more hoped that their fleet was not massive or the Council had one massive problem.

She noticed that humans were busy patching up the exterior of her ships where there were hull breaches and fixing damage to her weapons. She thought of arguing with the Human captain but decided it better not her ships needed to be ready for combat and she knew it would not be long now and her fleet needed to be ready.

**Admiral Porvan**

He couldn't believe it he thought that getting on that shuttle so he could lead from one of his cruisers seen how quickly their heavies were been knocked out would save his life. He could only stare in shock at the tactical display of the mind flayer of a Batarian cruiser his great armada had been beating by a measly 200 odd ships he growls and pulls a pistol on his XO ''What happened how did they manage to destroy my dreadnought and leave me with only a quarter of the ships we arrived with you incompetent fool you said they would be easy and that we did not need a plan.'' he fired his weapon till it overheats in to the XO head leaving the head full of holes leaking bits of brain that had been pulverized he walked over to his head and lifts his boot and brings it down ''you were a pathetic piece of filth, LET THIS BE A LESSON FOR BEING INCOMPETENT!.'' He shouts while aiming his pistol at others while growling forgetting that it was, he who actually thought that. There was a slight vibration throughout the ship indicating yet another hit along with an alarm bringing attention to another Hull breach in his ship.

''Sir their strike-craft are pulling back for the moment'' Shouts a relived sensor officer while slightly whimpering when the pistol was aimed at him.

''Good reform the formation and get repairs underway we launch as soon as were organized and can someone tell me how our guardian lasers were useless against those bloody strike-craft and why our barriers were useless against some of those new vessels?.'' He demands.

He received no answer and none of his bridge crew looked at him'' Pathetic excuses the hegemony will have our lives for failing such a raid launch the attack soon or you're next!.'' He orders with ruthless zeal pointing at his new XO.

**Space battle over Shanxi**

The battle would not come for three hours as both sides prepared for the next engagement venting their heat and repairing what they could. The Humans and Turian fleets would be brought up to combat ready if not perfect but close to it. Some ships had slightly weaker shields or a damaged missile pod but there Armour was fixed except for the Reaver still having two small layers of Armour bolted onto the exterior to provide a little protection on a massive hull breach.

They would engage one another when the Batarians showed themselves and left the cover of the Gas Giant and not far from short range engagements. The Stations opened fire taking down ten of the Batarian Cruisers in a single volley and would signal the start of the engagement with rounds been exchanged.

Shanxi would experience shock waves on the ground from Batarian misses but none would come to damage the city because of its shield. This would be there first alert that the battle for the planet was about to begin.

Strike-craft for the Alliance would first engage the now launched Batarian Strike-craft and obliterate them easily with their payloads. The Batarian strike-craft lacked a decent payload only having a gun and mounts for bombs they died in droves. The Alliance Strike-craft would arrive at the Batarian fleet and launch their payloads with the majority reaching their target taking another 87 vessels while crippling another 19 of them but they lost another 37 of their strike-craft to concentrated fire and some of them would return showing signs of damage to their carriers but they would return.

The battle would quickly turn to knife fighting ranges between the two fleets further damaging the Defense fleet. They would quickly return the favor launching massed volleys of missile fire alongside their secondary's that would end up claiming close to half the remaining Batarian fleet and critically damaging a quarter before they would pull out of the fight.

The strike-craft would arrive and launch their volleys early only taking out another 13 vessels but crippling 47 more vessels that were damaged in previous engagement, They would strafe in and out of the battle trying to eliminate key points on Batarian ships throughout the engagement. A lucky strike from a Batarian cruiser cripples the stations main gun but not before the station claims it's 137th victim the defense fleet jumps to FTL to prepare for further confrontations and the Batarians take up orbital supremacy while launching boarding craft for the station but not before another eighty cruisers are destroyed and twenty crippled from the ODP's and near seventy Frigates wiped out by the corvettes that had harassed them.

**Defense Station Commander Gayle Price**

He looks to the tactical screen he and sees that he has the standard complement, Irene had already been uploaded to the command bunker on the planet, He looked to the self-destruct clock it had ten seconds on it ready to blow at a moments notice.

''Commander their shuttlecraft are nearly here we are ready at all junctions and the ambush in the main hanger is ready, all information on the station has been scrubbed.'' Reports Savana one of his squad leaders.

He nods to his second in command and shoulders his rifle and begins to move towards the hanger. ''Hold this location with your squad and blow it once they break through, till then they were going to make these bastards bleed before we go down.'' He says in a firmly while also tinged with acceptance.

The Shuttles approaching the hangers are devastated in the first and second wave from the Point defense emplacements around the station. They would be destroyed when a few Batarian frigates use their Guardian lasers to destroy them but not before three frigates were crippled by them.

He arrives in the hanger as the shuttles of their fourth wave begin to enter the hangar and takes cover. The Batarians are turned to paste as three rockets are shot at two of the shuttles turning them into mangled wrecks along with their troops this is soon followed by the heavy machine guns tearing into the troops attempting to leave their shuttles.

''Don't let up if they get through here, we won't set up another kill box till the junction. The heavy Caliber bullets tearing into them leaving them nothing more than piles of guts and flesh. The Batarians bring in the Krogans in the sixth wave and using their heavy armor to tank the shots for the rest of the wave to make it halfway to their line.

''Why the hell is our barriers not working there tearing us apart'' Shouts a Batarian cowering behind a wreck of one of the now multiple destroyed shuttles.

''Shut it you pyjack this is a good fight and these things seem to have a bit of backbone.'' Says a krogan who is in the process of unloading his gun at them. ''I AM KROGAN!'' He shouts and charges only to take a bunch of rounds and his armor buckling halfway towards the line sending him to his grave his body turned into a large pile of chunks after taking a missile to the chest.

They were the thirteenth wave making it to the line using their fallen comrades as cover and began to get through. Gayle orders an orderly retreat but makes his stand with eight others on the HMG's price is one of the last to fall as he takes down one more shuttle before setting off a set of explosives all along the line Taking with him the thirteenth and crippling the fourteenth wave.

A private who is the last one left takes his grenades and a pack of c10 and primes them and charges at a group of Krogan that was going to overwhelm him once he arrives, he shouts. ''Victory or Death!" As he sets them all off the explosion sends bits of the body all over the hanger. It is not long before they are pushed into the alleys of the station.

The fighting last for three hours with shots traded over the entire station paid for in blood by the slavers they lose close to Thirteen thousand men just to arrive at the control station once they enter a Batarian is greeted by a shotgun to the face his squad behind him raise their weapons until they see a countdown behind the female soldier hit **0:00 **''Victory or Death!'' is the last thing they hear as the station explodes taking all on board her with it.

**Admiral Porvan**

He could only watch as the station in which he hoped to gather information from blew up which cost him around twenty-seven thousand of his men aboard it, his hands are clenched into tight fists, his face contorted into a silent rage he looks at his cowering crew and sneers.

''This is pathetic, can we not deal with these primitive species that are inferior to us you are all a disgrace to the hegemony for been so incapable he says over the ship-wide communication array. It matters not we will still gather the slaves from below begin the invasion!'' He shouts at his forces over the channel. Only having four hundred combat capable craft left had left him particularly pissed at anything that delivered bad news he had already shot three of his crew.

**Captain Siliana on board the escort carrier Vixen**

The Carrier Task-force had been separated from the main group alongside the Turians now floated inside one of the gas giants in the system to hide from the Batarians. They were currently repairing their ships.

She looked at the tactical report of her carrier group and could not help but cringe at the numbers looking at it they only had 700 odd strike-craft capable of combat with a good portion of them needing repairs. With over 3500 of them needing repairs before they would ever leave the hangers to be truly effective and there, best case scenario was at least 3 days before they were all capable of another attack in large numbers. She rubbed the bridge of her nose trying to ignore her fatigue and glanced at her working crew all showing signs of frustration at the situation. ''We need to get some Intel for the colony for general Williams. Send word to the Orca Artemis destroyer to take an orbital position for the moment we will rotate them out with someone else in a day.'' she says with a frustrated tone.

''Ma'am the Turian Admiral has just arrived she wants to further discuss our plans without risking it been intercepted,'' stated Elliot the AI his voice downcast.

Siliana looks to her tactical pad while deliberate and tapping her fingers on the table, the door into the bridge opens up and Orinia steps in and waves her guards off and steps up to the table, the strain of losing so many of her fleet visible but well hidden.

''What is the plan my fleet will support yours but I don't know how badly you lost in your strike-craft in the last engagement and what is the fleets combat capabilities,'' Orinia asks the pain clear in her voice.

''At the moment we have to repair the majority of them as of the moment we are combat ineffective, I believe the best course of action at the moment is that we should repair and wait for reinforcements and get in contact with the other task-forces, whit the expedition fleet only a few days away and we could regroup with them while we use our stealth vessels to provide intelligence gathering for the defenders on the colony and repair our ships ,they should be able to hold easily they got a rather large contingent of grounds forces from us before the battle so we're good there and they will have more than enough defenses from what we managed to gather they have 24 Orbital defense tanks on the ground. They also have the city shield running so they will be able to avoid any orbital bombardment and the civilians were all evacuated to the shelters and General Williams is an Insurrection veteran general so they should be able to hold out for a few days,'' she says in a hopeful and confident.

''Ma'am, the Fugu is reporting that another three hundred enemy vessels just came through the relay they don't seem to be armed so we are assuming they are more transports,'' stated Elliot he looks to the Admiral and shows a picture for confirmation.

''Yes, they are transports most likely loaded with their heavy ground forces anything else.'' Elliot nods "Yes we managed to intercept their transmissions it stated that another fleet was on its way and that they would be here in 2 days it would seem they had more forces waiting by also we managed to hack into their database and steal vital information on where this raid was launched from as well as multiple bases in which they were gathering their forces.

Orinia face contorts into what the humans assume a smile ''This may be an unfortunate accident that this had to happen but with this, we will be able to cripple their activity for a while.'' she says in an upbeat tone. she looks at the tactical table and nods her head's "all we can do is wait now for your people.'' she says in a slightly defeated as she begins to leave whilst nodding to the captain to recover from the day's battle.

**STG Stealth vessel Shadow**

unnoticed because of all the debris around the relay the STG vessel attached to the system that had seen the activation as well as the battle that had occurred near the relay and the first contact of this new race, they silently powered up their ship and headed to the relay. ''We must warn the Council of what has happened here we need to resolve this before it escalates and get a diplomatic envoy here immediately no new technology of this race gathered as all of their vessels and constructs to badly damaged must make haste if we are to return and try to gather information.'' The STG captain says rapidly as they take the relay back to council space to Alerting the Alliance sensors near the relay.

**The first battle of Shanxi**

**Alliance**

**Battle Cruiser 1**

**heavy Cruisers 5**

**light Cruisers 16**

**Escort Carriers 26**

**heavy destroyers 20**

**stealth destroyers 10**

**frigates 32**

**Stealth Frigates 12**

**Corvettes 35**

**ten L ODP around Shanxi**

**two L ODP around the relay**

**two H ODP around Shanxi**

**Hierarchy**

**Dreadnought 1**

**Cruisers 30**

**Frigates 50**

**Batarians**

**Dreadnought 2**

**Cruisers 1500**

**Frigates 3400**

**Losses**

**Alliance**

**None of the heavy ships were lost but lightships were and those that remain will require extensive time in dry-dock.**

**Stealth ships still combat effective**

**Heavy capital ships that are Combat effective are The resolute, herald, night gale and Frontier**

**The Reaver requires extensive field repair before it is Combat effective**

**Light Capital Ships combat effective.**

**Light cruiser only four remain combat effective the remaining ships are in need of dry dock**

**Destroyers are all combat capable and require field repairs.**

**Nearly all mainline frigates and corvettes destroyed with only three frigates remaining combat ineffective and require dry-dock.**

**Turians**

**Dreadnought the Talon combat capable but requires extensive repairs damage to both weapons and engine systems**

**Cruisers only nine remain**

**All frigates lost**

**Batarian**

**Dreadnoughts All lost**

**Cruisers only two hundred remain combat effective while seven hundred are dead in space**

**Frigates only three hundred frigates remain all others are destroyed.**

**Battle summary**

Batarians suffer heavy losses by alliance mines on their exit of the relay of near a thousand ships. The radiation around the relay would see the Batarians sensors rendered useless and would cost them close to another one and a half thousand ships and a loss of there first Dreadnought by Stealth ships.

A fighting withdrawal would see the Batarians lose another thousand Frigates who were destroyed by massed secondary weapons and a loss of over half there Cruisers to defense platforms.

Both sides would take cover behind a celestial body for repairs and reorganization while also gathering information.

The second battle would occur over planet Shanxi were engagements were at knife range engagement distance and would see the Alliances use of massed missiles to decimate the remaining fleet before withdrawing to multiple locations and communication silence.

**Outcome:** Batarian Pyrrhic victory.


	4. Chapter 4

**Arcturus Station**

**High Command Meeting**

Inside Arcturus station in a dimly lit room with projectors active The Alliance High Admirals were shown seated Around the table with the Arcturus sun visible with a few planets shown through a display causing a bit of illumination in the room. only Admiral Hackett and the president were physically there while all the other Admirals and the vice president were on the various QEC systems of Arcturus. The Admirals were all dressed in their formal uniforms while president Karl Franz and vice president Alexi Stuckov were in suits.

''We received a report from Shanxi nine hours ago that the mass relay activated and an unknown fleet came through the relay, it was later found out that these unknown forces belong to the Turian Hierarchy and apparently fled from a Pirate armada that had arrived in their system that they were patrolling and had these Pirates hot on their tail and is only about two thirds of a day out when the report arrived,'' says Admiral Hackett in a deep and confident voice, he looks to Admiral Shepard.

''What is the status of your fleet Shepard you are the closest gathered main fleet to this threat and because of the wormhole station not being delivered there yet you won't have reinforcements till you use the nomad to establish a wormhole corridor to Arcturus so that my fleet can reinforce yours so what is your time of arrival.'' He asks in the same voice.

Shepard nods her face Grim. ''The fleet was already about to go through a relay when the report came in now as you know my fleet has the highest risk of large-scale combat and is therefore in a constant state of alert and undergoing constant drills. So they are all ways ready for combat in case of the most likely event of a hostile first contact scenario if we were to discover them but without the wormhole station that would usually only take an hour to arrive at the colony, this has forced us to take the long route so the expedition fleet will be there in just a little over three days. We were lucky that my fleet was mobile at the time otherwise this could have taken much longer to just organize and get underway, we got lucky,'' she says in a carefully been measured in how she sounds.

The president nods. ''We were lucky as is I am going to have the fifth fleet mobilized into a war fleet. The elements from the second and third fleets are being put into effect to cover the area of fifth fleets operations along with activating our reserves to support them. I want the expedition fleet to secure Shanxi system and once the Fifth fleet is in a position, we want you to head for wherever their seat of power is for this alliance to negotiate with them and feel them out. Should they prove unreasonable we have another choice work it out with both of them that we want a non-aggression pact. Then I want the expedition fleet turned into a quick reaction force and your fleet will handle our counter-offensive once we are ready Shepard.'' He says pondering his choices. He looks to Admiral Hackett and relays an order. A look of determination present.

Admiral Hackett you are going to be active around all relays that could enter our space we need to send a message we will not take this provocation lying down. This council seems to have no spine if they are unable to deal with simple pirates that they could actually become such a threat, we will show them how to do the job you will work with Shepard to come up with an overall plan while you defend our people.'' He orders Coldly.

''Now that we have discussed our immediate actions. I will leave it up to you how to plan your duties and your fleets, I want our people safe. I will also suggest that we use this to, spur the economy into building more ships for the military as we have seen if pirates are able to field such large numbers it will not be good for us. Therefore I am suggesting that we double our colony defenses to parliament and while it will have to pass through the parliament we have to be careful we are alone and these coalition's may be a danger to us therefor, I am issuing an executive order for two new fleets to begin construction immediately and to also bring the exploration fleet to a fully fielded fleet to match the others.'' He states calmly

The vice president nods while taking notes and looks to the President. ''I assume we will use the emergency fund to get that going so that we can manage the more than likely wave of expansion that is to come or the very strong possibility of war, therefore, we should also prepare plans to go to a war footing should that occur. So, what do we know about these aliens.'' He asks in a thick Russian accent.

Admiral Hackett was the one to reply ''The reports I received indicate that they are heavily dependent on element zero for all their technology. Which means that they will be very interested in our technology and the good news is that from what we can tell is that these aliens consider anything above 800 meters to be a dreadnought class vessel, which means that in heavy vessels we have them outnumbered possibly, but we can easily speculate that they have a much larger number of smaller vessels. It is also likely that their industry out sizes ours by a large factor.'' He answers calmly.

Admiral Dreacher nods and clears her throat to gather their attention. ''I would like to point out that they fail to see how useful strike-craft really are in their capabilities it would seem they have not developed them for use against large warships which has led to their use of only a light amount of point defense for protection, though data that was recovered seems to indicate a refit going on at the moment. That and that their own strike craft are more or less used to support them in planetary invasions and are extremely underdeveloped to the point of a been a near non-threat to us at the moment.'' She states sounding almost content.

A few of the Admirals nod to this while James cutter nods and brings up a quick statistic. ''I want to bring attention to their ship classes the majority of which are much smaller than ours at the moment. I would like to suggest that we focus our production on our lighter vessels instead of the Heavy ones to increase our fleet size for the time been and we might have to possibly change the composition of our fleets to deal with so many hostiles. Then we also have managed to take information that was confidential during combat. We managed to discretely hack from them vital locations for heavy space industry. We have also had the AI analyze the information and have found some glaring issues that need to be discussed for our own security.'' He says warily.

The president nods and brings up some common information. ''The first thing that has to be discussed is the treaty of Farixen this-.''

**The Citadel Asari Embassy**

**POV Tevos**

Tevos was seated drinking Thessian tea going over the day's reports of what the Matriarchs had planned as well as demands from both the Volus and Elcor on council seats. She sighed it seemed that it was mostly repetition as of late with all the requests and trying to keep the Turians from going on a warpath in the terminus systems. She could only think that it was a useless waste of life to try and clean up the pirate vermin that held that sector of space it was not as if they suffered terribly. They sure complained a lot over their losses and not been given aid in patrolling the Boarder, though that was not her people's problem their job was to guide the younger races. It also helped that the Commonwealth was hard pressed to deal with them.

It also helped that it was of little interest to both the Asari and Salarians who had the most interest in areas far from the Terminus boarder. She could see why they wanted to stop it but it just would damage their own interests and with the secret agreement that the Salarian Union and Asari Republics had to ensure that the Turians remained good little guard varren doing as they were told. It did not help that they were beginning to have doubts about the council with all the stonewalling.

A frown became rather apparent when she thought of the Federation. She really wished that her predecessor had crushed them before they had become such a large problem. It's was now coming back to hurt the Republics Interests. They had begun to finally expand past that damned fortress system that they used and were the cause of associate members questioning who was the Better government.

Her Omni-tool flashed alerting her to a priority message, she groans had today not been busy enough she would have had a smile with all the plans that were put in place to deal with the Nuisances. ''Arysa prepare a transit shuttle to the council room it would appear that an issue has come up,'' she says in a bored and tired way that is easily conveyed.

''right away councilor shall I alert the Council of matriarchs to be ready for you when you have dealt with what has come up.'' her receptionist says softly, Tevos nods to her reply while heading to the shuttle.

**A short ride later.**

Once arriving at the council's private chambers were all important matters were discussed. Tevos enters to see that both Varlin the Salarian councilor and Caivus the Turian councilor were both already seated and waiting for Tevos she puts a fake smile that she had perfectly practiced for centuries. ''What was so important that it required our attention to be called so suddenly Varlin I am pretty sure that all matters have been discussed today,'' she says confidently with a bit of smugness coloring her words.

''Yes, yes all has been discussed that we had planned about, but new information greatly troubling a relay was activated five days ago.''At this, he gives a pointed look to Caivus. ''BY THE TURIANS! Who has attempted to flee a pirate fleet through the recently activated one,'' he says heatedly.

Tevos looks to Caivus with a glare. ''What are your people thinking Caivus. I thought your people took the law seriously or are your people trying to cause an issue like the Racni war again they had better not have caused such an issue or your people will suffer greatly.''She says Threateningly _''Sanctions make for lovely punishments and it will cause there already recovering economy to collapse or put them back in her people's_ _debt she liked how this was going this might make her day.''_ she thought darkly well giving him a vindictive smile.

Caivus looks at Tevos with rage. _''Does she truly think that good Turians should just die for the possibility of another devastating war though I seriously doubt it will be her people who suffer.''_

''That is completely out of the question, and again that was nearly one and half thousand years ago. We also could have handled any new situation. I have argued that the law on relays should be changed because of such a ridiculous idea that we will find something that is a threat to us! but if we opened them we would find any threats much earlier rather than when they catch us off guard. Let's not forget that it was your two's idea of stopping any kind of Hierarchy response to the pirates and slave raids in the terminus for the last three hundred years and that's not to mention that the Batarians are causing more issues lately.'' He rages at them.

He sighs giving them a hard look.'' if you would let us do our spirits be damned duty as we are supposed to then nothing like this would have happened in the first place. I can only hope that you see what you are doing because my government is getting tired of all the crap that your two governments do to us, but for how long have my people been patrolling your territory which has stretched the hierarchy navy thin and if you had let us launch our assault earlier or aided our navy we would be less pressed. That is not to mention you forcing us to just take defensive actions only which does not allow us do our jobs.'' he says sounding bitter looking them pointedly.

Tevos was about to reply but Before a heated debate can break out Varlin interrupts. ''ENOUGH! While there are a few issues that should be discussed that is not why I called it appears that there was an unknown race on the other side of the relay which resulted in the first contact,'' he says firmly

Tevos jumps after him looking at Caivus with a look that would cause most to freeze up before looking at Varlin.''Then we have to send a diplomatic envoy to ensure that this is just an accident and not an act of war.'' she says confidently with a large smile.

''Relax Tevos it would appear that the Turians of the ninety-seventh patrol fleet managed to get in contact with this new race and tried to defend the colony that was there with this species own forces. Which I might add were extremely effective even though the entire combined fleet was only 200 odd vessels and outnumbered by roughly twenty-five to one in odds they have inflicted close to over ninety percent casualties to the entire pirate fleet. The STG team that was monitoring the relay stated that there were more forces on the way to this colony from an intercepted communication, but the most disturbing piece of information is that this race had five dreadnought class vessels nearby. My people have so far speculated that either they have different classes for their vessels and are in an element zero rich area to be able to build so many or they are a highly Militaristic race with little territory.'' He says quickly sounding slightly detached before continuing ignoring Tevos slight signs of worry.

''We also now know that strike-craft is a dangerous weapon when used correctly this race had 26 vessels dedicated to the use of deploying them and are responsible for roughly Thirty-three percent of the destruction of the pirate fleet. They may have just changed space combat doctrine on a whole new level.'' He says starting to sound excited. While Caivus keeps his face blank.

His face goes a bit sour after saying the new information.''That is all that our team managed to learn because their firewalls were extremely advanced, we can only assume they were like this because of the battle going on which had people acting on their cyberwarfare suits and nothing else was recovered. I also would like to schedule a meeting in a day or so because we only got a message and not the footage or specifications of these vessels so that we may further plan ahead.'' he states slightly dejected at not getting more information.

Caivus face slowly morphs to surprise. ''I see I will have my analysts ready for when we have the information, but just so we are clear are you, saying that my people fought alongside this unknown species fleet and managed to inflict enough damage in this engagement alone and managed take down a good portion of the pirates fleet if so then, I am impressed at their abilities but I have to ask what are the pirates numbers of heavy ships for this battle and what are the chances they pose a significant threat to us.'' _''and are they a better choice down the line.'' _He says contemplatively.

Varlin looked indecisive for a moment before answering. ''The pirate fleet numbered just under one and a half thousand capital class vessels while the remaining were frigate weight before, they engaged the system's defenders. They currently only have around five hundred combat-capable vessels of which only around two hundred are cruisers and the remainder frigates that remain after the engagement with around double that reinforcing them soon.'' he finished gravely shocking the other councilors.

''To the second question We do not truly know of how dangerous they are but the fact that they leave dreadnought class vessels to guard their colonies and casualties the Pirates sustained, either means they have an abundance of large capital ships or we are dealing with a race who has a small amount of territory. That does not even show their threat levels but their combat capabilities are extremely high and are almost as good as Experienced Turian forces in their precision of space combat. The team that watched that battle also note that the pirates only took these losses from a prepared defender, who laid out multiple traps to inflict maximum devastation and because of what appear to be specialized warships, so this may be a once-off situation'' He looks at both councilors before looking at Caivus.

''I hate to admit it after breaking one of our laws but your people helping to defend a colony world of their own will help us in our negotiations and for that, I suggest that we get to sending a fleet to help these people,'' Tevos says venom coating her words.

Varlin nods a large number of thoughts going through his head. ''Yes, we want this to be done efficiently and quietly so we can avoid a first contact war, what is the status of nearby fleets been able to get there also we will be going in as a joint fleet.'' He says carefully measuring his voice while he gazes at Caivus.

Caivus looked uncomfortable shifting in his seat. ''A fleet was already on route to that relay system when we got an emergency wide burst signal that is used for situations like this, they will be there within 3 days from the system with relay 314,'' he states confidently.

Tevos just stands up heading for the door. ''I have to alert my government about this so we can get things underway this first contact is bad enough as it is and we don't need the federation getting ahead of us and Caivus your people's fleet will wait for reinforcements,'' she says menacingly.

As she leaves, an unseen battle under the surface with the circumstances that had just happened_.''This is great so many new things we could learn and cultures to learn, but how will the others react to this plans will have to be put on hold for this at least it would keep the Turians busy now and stop complaining about all of the issues in the terminus.''_

As she made her way down she would never know the world of politics to be so simple ever again and how little the Asari were prepared to be tested by these newcomers.

**Caivus**

As the other councilors left, he could not help but be happy with this turn of events and began to move towards his communication room he had to alert the Primarchs and the Admiral of this development. He was no fool the STG had been detected more than a few times in the past he was certain that they were not watching the relays and were watching them instead. The Turian people were getting tired of the way they were used, countless generations of good Turians dying for Citadel space only to be repaid with more warships and an economy that was only starting to recover from their build up as it is.

Thinking back to the meeting about these new people who were definitely militaristic because there was no other way they would have learned what was required to have such an effective fleet of combat vessels that were better than that of most of the other races warships and would have inflicted far less damage than reported and suffered far worse not to mention run away while his people suffered. He had hope now that this new race was ready with their dreadnought class vessels and also ready for how dangerous the galaxy truly is and prepared because they might be able to help his people. At least this race had the honor of fighting beside complete unknowns. arriving by the communications room keying the Primarch.

He waited only for a few minutes. The Primarch appeared on the holographic projector in the room looking annoyed and slightly haggard. He was busy looking him over almost as if wondering what required a priority call or if this was a waste of time.

''Primarch Fedorian we have a development the ninety-seventh patrol fleet activated a relay trying to escape a pirate armada they have inadvertently caused a first contact situation and which lead them to helping defend this new race's colony,'' he says worry clear in his voice

''I understand I will alert the others to this and prepare a few contingencies also why not just send a priority message instead of contacting me directly,'' he asks carefully while looking questionably at him.

''I would have done that if I had not learned something that would be extremely beneficial towards us it would appear by what we know so far that this race is militaristic because they have dreadnought class warships that performed above what is expected of them above a small colony that only held a single large city'' he says happily

''I see so why do you think they can help us I doubt that this new group will be anything useful to us, I doubt they have any significant navy or large infrastructure,'' he says dismissively not even bothering to really consider the possibilities using a datapad to check something.

''Yes I agree but they have a different approach to space warfare it seems.'' He brings up an image of the Carriers.'' These vessels carry large amounts of strike-craft that were extremely capable of harming the pirate fleet, I suggest we seek them out and try to get them as allies or client race or they may be a better option, in the long run, the way things are going.'' he asks hopefully.

''I will consider it but not before we have more information if your observations are correct, we may do just that,'' he says gravely only slightly catching his attention.

''We don't have a choice we can't keep the secret, that civil unrest is getting critical with how things have been going either this species will unite us and we stay as we have or we join them,'' he says completely serious.

He disconnects the call and takes a seat relaxing into the chair trying to calm down with all the issues that he has to deal with in these trying times._''We will not falter at such a critical time.''_

**Palavan**

**Primarch Fedorian**

After disconnecting he contacted Turian Intelligence he only had to wait a moment before he was connected. ''A new situation has developed I am sending you information I want it to end up in the right hands and move to the next phase of project Talio. He closed the connection only once he got a confirmation While going over the little information gathered.

**Menais Gate System**

**Federation ship Silent waves**

The conference room aboard the Silent wave was brightly lit and expensively furnished the room held four chairs seated around a circular table in the center off to the side on view for the occupants of the room was the systems relay and a massive fleet waiting for action. The room was filled with expensive Paintings and symbols of the Federations culture.

The Door to the Conference room opened as the Diplomats of the Federation entered talking to one another about Trivial things.

Sparatus was the first to enter the room. He wore a Turian suit that was black and red. He was young and the new councilor for the Turian commonwealth. He had only been in office for a year and made it into the position because he had shown a lot of promise in gathering two more planets to join the Federation.

The next to enter was a The Raloi Ambassador she stood at seven point nine feet tall at the upper end of her people's average height. Her eyes surveyed the room mostly flickering to the view. She wore a highly decorative armor suit Her name was Thoraya.

She was followed closely by Matriarch Aethya who is The lead diplomat of the Independent systems alliance. She walked in with a purpose to one of the four seats only glancing at the view.

The last to enter who was going over her Omni-tool was Naena'caezh Nar Nova Adas. Her glowing eyes focused intently on the new information. Her long black hair tied into a ponytail a small frown on her face.

The Diplomats were quick to find the seats as the room was scanned and sealed. The Guards that followed them were posted at the single door into the room. The Projector at the center of the room lit-up once all checks were completed. Naena was quick to plug the information into the isolated system.

While it was uploading the room fell quiet the only sound there breathing and Naena impatient taping. ''We have a problem that needs a fleet Mobilized.'' She states as the Interface shows the system relay 314 is situated.

Aethya groans bring her hands up to rub the bridge of her nose to delay a headache. ''What is it now that we need to Mobilize a fleet.'' She says in a groan. ''We already know that close to twenty four thousand ships are moving to that system so why do we need to intercept?'' She asks.

Receiving a pointed look from Naena before she replies pointedly. ''The Hierarchy ninety-seventh fleet was patrolling the area when two thousand ships arrived at their staging area.'' She let out a small sigh. ''The Admiral sent her fleet through an inactive relay four and a half days ago followed by almost five thousand warships and additional transports that were attached shortly afterword's.'' She taps a few symbols on the table's interface to bring out a recording. ''An STG team came back reporting that they met a new race that decimated the first Group.'' She says still sounding a little unbelieving that it happened.

That brings a few shocked or disbelieving looks from the others. Sparatus is the first to quickly bring up the scans of the ship's and scans over there information. He looks at it thoughtfully while the others are also trying to check the information. ''I don't think we have to worry too much it seems most of the first group that went through were a bunch of old warships used in the Batarian Hegemony and their cheap warships.'' He says sounding relieved.

Thoraya gave a small snort at that shaking her head as her reptilian eyes focused him down. ''I would not be so sure of that assessment, five thousand warships no matter how out of date could easily overwhelm any defense fleet. I think you forget that it is only recently thanks to the Black hand that our shipboard Mass Accelerators hit so hard and that those out of date ship would still be a Danger, whatever engaged them either had a significant force ready which is unlikely or they are dangerously advanced.'' She states her voice grating to the others.

Aethya pushes into the conversation to gain everyone's attention. ''It does not matter whatever is on the other side of the relay has caused this, I suggest we send the Federations Third Fleet they already have a Diplomat and are the closest fleet to the relay been only about three days away from the system. We need answers and we need it now. Whatever is on that side of the Relay needs to either be stopped or we need to open Communications with these unknowns.'' She states firmly

Sparatus just sits up wright thinking before nodding his consent. ''I will send out the orders for the fleet, as long as there are no objections.'' He asks gruffly. He received none from them so he took his leave giving them a nod. ''I leave the rest to you I have orders to send.''

**Edge of the Galaxy**

**Unknown POV**

The Ancient Intelligence awoke from its slumber and Checked with the Catalyst. There was nothing of note. The only thing of interest was that another race that had previously been noted had become apart of this cycle and had finally connected their portion of the relay to the Catalyst. There was nothing to report it seemed and returned to its slumber but not before ensuring that its puppets were still in place and should attempt to infiltrate them.

It would return to its slumber and when it awoke twenty years from now the current cycle would change Dangerously to it's kind.


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I do not own mass effect**

**Command Bunker**

**POV**

**General Williams**

He looks to the AI that had been moved down to his bunker she had been moping about not been a part of the battle that had occurred in space. Now that General Williams thought about it, a lot of AI tended to want to be involved in any Conflict then again it did not help that a lot of their parents were in the military.

As he looks towards his family picture with his wife and two sons, it was supposed to be their birthday next week. He promised that if he made it through this he would look for a nice safe core world, he sighs as he begins looking to the alien that was currently with him he remembered that his name was Desolas and that one of his men had remarked that it was the return of the dinosaurs. He had what would appear to be the equivalent of a Human frown with the amount of times he grumbled about the current situation to himself.

''I don't like your plan general it leaves us too thin to hold the line, we have to respond with total force and since it is against pirates, I am sure our weapons are up to the task alone and that we are not at risk of orbital bombardment. Then again, they are pirate slavers so you never know.'' He said in a low voice.

Desolas Arterius had been complaining that there were not enough men around the landing zones and that they would break through and take his people with ease. He had yet to realize the true reason for that been that they wanted to surprise them also they had a large number of heavy weapons. This also allowed them to have a large quick reaction force at the ready, he also did not know about the city shield over their heads.

He snorted at the irony of what he was saying. ''Yes I would agree with you had they not already broken the law not to mention we know Urban warfare general trust me when I say these scum will pay in blood the entire advance and we have defenses all over the place.'' looking at the tactical display he had twenty-seven thousand, six hundred marines of which three thousand were AI and four hundred and sixty were Infantry fighting vehicles and a hundred and fifty were Standard AA vehicles. Then there were thirty-three MBTs and twelve hover tanks from the reinforcements in the defense fleet to bolster the garrison of three thousand marines and seventy AA vehicles of which twenty-four were for orbital defense and only thirty IFV and twenty more MBT alongside four more hover tanks.

He smiled he had a rather large force to defend the colony with not to mention how little area to cover. The army was spread out through the entire city laying in wait with all possible large entry ways into the city guarded by defensive emplacements with the landing zones been covered from all directions and the Space-port that was meant to be replaced by a space elevator next month was filled with explosives and surrounded should they break through the forces holding it then these slavers would meet a fiery end.

The vehicles like the MBT and IFV were all in underground structures. That would allow for an effective counter-attack and out of sight while the AA vehicles were evenly placed throughout the city and his Orbital defense vehicles ready to roll out should they bring their ships into range. His Hover tanks alongside the Utility vehicles were deployed in the forest around the city ready to launch ambushes and disrupt their force. A large portion of the Civilians had been sent to the bunkers the second the attack had been discovered so there were no risks to them and the militia would only be called in if it was needed or they were desperate enough.

''Your main forces are to support in the counter-attack that we have laid out once they have pushed far enough, should I Expect any surprises that you have not informed me as of this moment.'' General Williams asked him his voice taut.

''Yes, there is a chance that they bring down slaves here to maintain their equipment or as distraction forces these people generally have an explosive device to ensure they follow the orders given.'' He says monotonously.

He nodded and frowned. ''We will have to deal with that, what is the status of their landing Irene.'' He says quietly thinking over his options.

''There the first wave has arrived at the star-port and are surveying the surrounding area for more landing sites.'' She says aggressively.

He looked at the tactical display and took a deep breath. ''Open fire on them let none leave alive.'' He says over the tactical channel

Teams positioned all around the city activated there AA weapons knocking out fighters and shuttles all over the city while the forces at the star-port started to rain down weapons fire on the Batarian forces already disembarked and on shuttles there.

Air forces launched from a small underground Airbase which held only forty-eight fighters and twelve thunder hawks. It was also relatively close to one of the few bunkers in the city. It was noted that Military personal were deployed their because it was in the last stages of its construction.

**Batarian Shuttle**

**POV**

**Captain Ghorek**

He looked around the shuttle at the thirty men with him. ''Listen up you idiots the first wave is currently stuck at the star-port we are not landing there. ''He taps his Omni-tool and projects an image of a plaza.

''This is where we are landing with elements of the second wave while the rest of it heads to the meat grinder at the star-port, we will be setting up a secondary base here and then pushing towards those incompetent fools at the star-port the first-''

His shuttle took a sharp bank knocking around everyone followed by large numbers of alarms blaring. ''What are you fools doing in there get us to the-!'' the last thing he sees is flames and bright light?

His transport is shot out of the sky well before arriving raining down flaming wreckage onto the surrounding wilderness.

**Shanxi city**

**POV**

**Lieutenant Trevor Everett**

He lay atop one of the many buildings surrounding the spaceport, he was one of the many sniper teams in the area, he smiled and scoped another officer that was barking orders to other units and pulled the trigger turning the idiots head into mush as he fell, he looked for his next target. _''These idiots make it easy to kill those in charge they never here of trying to keep a low profile.''_

''Watch out their sending a frigate into the atmosphere to provide support take visual cover.'' Came over the tactical communication channel.

He looked up to see the strangely designed vessel as it got closer the unmistakable sound of the defense tanks fired. The sound is almost like thunder and as it echoed throughout the city causing him to wince, the frigate was going down and it had a good deal of holes in it when he looked through his scope.

''Okay people get out of the danger zone we're blowing them to hell. The Fifth wave is inbound and we are starting to lose our ground you have five minutes till detonation.'' came the tactical officer's voice-over comm's.

**Shanxi Command Bunker**

**POV**

**General Williams**

He watched as his forces pulled back away from the danger zone and watched as the Fifth wave began to land and deploy their vehicles and troops and began to set up around the spaceport as they began to pull out. ''General our forces are out of the zone a minute ahead of schedule.''

''Good set off the charges, take them out.'' He watched as the spaceport went up in a large fireball taking with it the majority of all the landed forces, he smiled

''General their sending more Frigates down to try and offer support again.'' States Irene with a feral grin.

''Well we will just have to educate them on what happens when they enter our range take them out again until they learn their lesson because we have plenty of ammo to go around.'' He orders confidently.

Desolas could only stare at the tactical display in wonder at what was happening, the Batarians were been led into a slaughterhouse and he did not understand how they were been so successful his troops had yet to be deployed to shore up any breaches. He was rue to admit it but he could not argue results and the Batarians were still trying to land and kept losing entire units before landing. Or they were led into ambushes that wiped them out. He did not like the idea of fighting these humans he was sure that if it were Turians in there place they would be having almost the same amount of progress. ''How long do you think it is until they set up their forward base,'' Desolas says looking towards Williams.

''My best guess would be that they set it up outside the city they have yet to set up any holdout zones, I guess that they will begin to land on the outskirts and push in, we just have to hold them at bay.'' He says while going over the data. ''There are also our hover tanks out there they will keep them off balance for a time.'' He states confidently.

**Mind Flayer Batarian Cruiser**

**POV**

**Admiral Porvan**

Porvan looked at his tactical display trying to get control of the rage that had been building up throughout the entire siege and space battle. His forces were proving to be completely useless in doing a simple job, to begin with, looking over the status of the invasion he already felt happy he had already got rid of a few others in charge he would be going home rich with their spoils. He had seen that he had lost close to forty thousand men in just trying to land along over a quarter of his armored forces and his men had only just set up a base out of the city because of their blasted AA defense and there orbital guns he had lost seven of them before he decided against sending more. _''Who puts Anti-Orbital guns on a tank are these people are insane. ''_Seen that the Seventh wave was going in now he smiled soon they would fall.

''Alert the eclipse and blood pack to go in with the next wave they will lead the charge. _''The less of them left the less I have of them I have to deal with later.'' _He thaught greedily while he was secretly running possible figures. ''What is the status of the reinforcement fleet that is on its way.'' He asks his hand constantly tapping his pistol or leg.

''Sir the reinforcement fleet is only a day out and should about double or fleets numbers but they have no Dreadnaught ship's with them.'' Came a reply from a fidgeting Batarain

''Good I think these new slaves are going to be a boon for the Hegemony after we take this planet we will move to their home-world I doubt they can stand against the full might of our people.'' He says viciously.

**Shanxi defense line**

**POV**

**Saren Arterius**

He looked out towards the forest in which the Batarians had landed in, hearing the sound of allied artillery hammering into their forces and the occasional heavy weapons fire in the forest. Looking at the humans that were pulling out of the forest they looked like hell the majority of them sporting wounds along with their dead. He looked at his unit he been the youngest of them at only been 19 one of the youngest to ever be assigned to a Black-watch division.

''These humans are dangerous they don't let up on the Batarians if they were not so much like the Asari I might have thought they were Krogan.'' States one of his comrades.

''They're worse than the Krogan at least with Krogan you know to expect them to charge at you, for them you don't know what the hell there planning. I mean we were near the space-port we had them contained but instead of holding onto it the second we were been pushed back they pulled out and blew it, who else do you know would do something like that?.'' another one of his fellow Turians said incredulously.

''LOOK ALIVE!.'' Bellowed a human over the channel.

''Finally, we get some action these humans have been doing our job let's show them how we Turians fight.'' He heard his commander say.

The sound of Machine Guns and sniper rifles filled Sarens ears while he saw muzzle flashes. He looks through his scope preparing to scope a Batarian in simple Grey armor when his head jerks back the left side of his face missing. _''What in the world do these humans use for ammo no wonder they keep beating them back and why they don't seem to have an issue with Krogan if all their weapons are tearing them apart like that.''_

''AIRSTRIKE! Inbound get to cover.'' Shouts one of his fellow Black-watch

A Batarian strike-craft one of the few that had not been knocked out began a strafing run on their location only for a human to pull out a strange type of rocket launcher and aims it at the Batarian Strike-craft. Moments later a small rocket was launched and hit the Batarian strike-craft causing it to glow blue around it has the craft slowly morphed strangely a telltale sign of a dangerously destabilized core. It was on a decent course directly to one of the few HMG nests on his line.

The Strike-craft grazes earth as it crashes and landing practically on top of the HMG Followed by an explosion. A Human medic runs to the crash site and begins to pull out the injured Saren stares as a Human who is pulled out his legs missing leaking a red substance he assumes to be the humans blood his upper legs mangled with some flesh hanging and strewn across the floor .looking back to forest he sees Batarians and blood pack mercenaries charging their lines. He aims his Phaeston and fires breaking the barriers of a Krogan who is charging him only to be knocked off his feet by an explosion.

''There breaking through all forces pull back to the second defense line.'' Comes an order over the channel

''Why the hell are we pulling back do these humans not have the backbone to hold for just one moment.'' States a centurion

''It's Called laying a bloody trap you fucking idiot, now get your asses into gear before the artillery starts to land on our heads.'' states a grizzled human who has a scar around his eye and two different eye colors, and for your information these bastards are pathetic I remember the bloody rebels putting up a better fight than this.'' The Human says gravely.

Before Saren can comment his commanding, officer gets a hold on him and pushes him into one of the human vehicles. ''Just ignore them we have a job to do, we can figure out why they're like this later, I want us focused don't feel like losing someone.'' His commander said over their private channel.

The sound of more artillery fire followed by the sound of explosions and the cries of dying Batarians as the door closes taking him to the next line.

''I don't understand we're supposed to protect the city when you defend it yet these Humans.'' He shudders. ''They're blowing up everything that has been built here why bother to protect it''. Before one of his fellow Turians can comment a human in the vehicle with them looks at him and shakes his head.

**Shanxi Forest**

**POV**

**Lieutenant Commander David Anderson**

He was using his tactical cloak to move around the forest to the Batarians base his mission was simple they said to his squad. _''This is anything but simple, they said I just had to sneak into the base and plant the explosives through the second objective would be the bigger issue. I can easily sneak through anything but how the hell am I supposed to free any of the slaves if they bring them down here, they did say only if I could but even the General looked conflicted when he gave the order for following that one I mean what is twelve of us supposed to do against an army if we do find slaves.''_

Slowly looking around avoiding yet another patrol he slowly makes his way towards the base. Half an hour later they came across a base were a large vehicle pool and prefab building was along with what he assumed were their supplies. ''Looks like we found it now we just got to set the charges and we should look for information for the general.'' He says quietly over there comm's

''Agreed Lieutenant Urban, just do us all a favor and not get shot this time I think your wife will kill us I swear that women could kill us with her stare.'' He hears over the comm's

''Ya sure coming from the man who is dating a High Admirals daughter and the one with a reputation has been as cold as the vacuum of space when involving her family, I find it hard to believe that my wife's stare is more unnerving to deal with,'' Urban says testily.

''Clear the channel we don't have time for this with all these hostiles around.'' States Anderson tensely.

Moving around the camp the N7 squad deployed their explosives to what they assume are munitions and key equipment they also plant charges on armor and vehicles that have been left unsupervised. Half an hour passes for them as they continue their mission when they come across a large Structure, they assume to be a storage building. They sneak in and find a large heavy weapons cache which is quickly set to blow. ''We got incoming.'' He heard price say.

''Shit any chance you can remove him.'' States Anderson while taking cover behind a bunch of boxes. As he looks through his helmets display system to see what his squad mate is looking at.

''Negative, Boss looks like he has a friend with him but this one not like the other's looks like it's female and is wearing a full suit think it is one of those Quarians that they might have had with them that the Dino's Showed us.''

The Batarian gets to the doorway and looks back towards the female. ''Get a move on your piece of suit rat crap, you have a job to do.'' He says as he brings up his Omni-tool and presses a button that causes the Quarian to jolt.

They both enter and walk over to a weapons table as the unknown begins to work while the Batarian keeps an eye on her. ''You suit rats are all the same you complain too much but you are easy-to-''

He fails to notice them as a knife enters the back of his neck and is pulled behind a crate while the Quarian sharply turns around and begins to back away from the strange aliens in fear, she says something in her language which the squad doesn't understand.

Anderson quickly gives the order to secure the perimeter while he has his suit's systems activate their external speakers while also activating it's translation program so that he could speak to the alien. ''Ma'am we don't know what your saying please speak Turian and we aren't going to hurt you.'' He says calmly while looking around for more hostiles.

The Quarian looked to her Omni-tool and began to type furiously into it, a few seconds later it beeped and had a small glowing ball picture. ''Thank you for helping me I am sure I can repay you if you get me out of here,'' she says as the program translates what she says while she fidgets.

''That's okay Ma'am my names David Anderson may I know yours?.'' He asks not sounding sure and looking a little uncomfortable. This was a search and destroy mission and now it was a rescue op. It sent his mission parameters out of whack. He really did not want their to be more slaves they were already at risk.

''Oh sorry my name is Mina'Zorah nar Rayya.'' She says as while fiddling with her suit and looking around.

Anderson nods and checks if anything is on sensors. _''That is one long name.'' _He can't help but think.

''Okay Ma'am we were just doing our mission but can you tell us where the other's are been held?''

Her head tilted to the side and she began to look everywhere but at them. ''They were holding us in one of their ships but I don't know which one that's all I know, they only ever take us out of the cells when they need us for something.'' She says nervously.

''Okay just follow us and stay hidden were going to see if we can do something but we cannot guarantee anything.'' He says while beginning to move away as a transmission came in.

''This is Cooper we have dropships inbound, we have to get out of here we won't be able to get out unnoticed with the amount of activity that's about to land here.'' He says in a hurried tone.

''Understood, were pulling out, Urban you are escorting Rayya out of here while the rest of us ensure that the explosives we set go off.''

''Yes sir,'' he answers slightly hesitant as he closes in near the Quarian to ensure her safety.

The next few minutes are tense with a lot of diving for cover or using their tactical cloaks to sneak around and set the last of the explosives.

**Batarian FOB**

**POV**

**Lieutenant Urban**

Slowly looking around he notices another patrol and gestures for the alien that is following him to lay low. _''What the hell is the commander thinking to leave me to guard an alien by myself, If these bastards find us I am so screwed.'' _looking back above the crate he sees that the guards are busy checking the buildings opposite of him , he signals for her to follow him while making his way to the next tank which is close to the forest, He breaths a sigh of relief that they were not detected. He looks back into the encampment and notices that the patrol from earlier is heading for the building that they had killed the Batarian in.

''Commander you might be going loud soon so be ready there's a patrol that just went into that building we left the dead Bastard inside.'' He looks around and sees that there are no nearby patrols or groupings of them. He looks to the Quarian and nods. ''We're gonna get out of here before things get hot but it is a bit of a run till we're clear you stay down and out of sight should something happen.'' He takes out his hold out pistol and flips it around and offers her the handle. ''I assume you know how to use this so should we get engaged, well you better make yourself useful because otherwise we are fucked.'' He says quietly while looking at the patrol.

Mina nods her head and takes the gun and noticed that it does not fit nicely and just shakes her head. ''All of my people are trained for things like this, though this thing feels rather bulky and heavier than our standard weapons.'' She says quietly and a little affronted about something.

The two of them begin to run for the forest they are about three-fourths of the way till there out of sight when they hear a shout from the building that the patrol went into, looking back he notices that the patrol failed to notice them and is currently heading towards the main squad location,

''Anderson you got incoming on your AO so you better hall ass otherwise this is gonna get hot very fast and you guys are still in the blast zone.''

''We know Captain just get out of here, for now, we will see you back at base.'' came prices voice.

They make it to the forest without issues and begin the long run back to safety in silence it is only eight minutes before an earth-shattering BOOM! Is heard with a massive heatwave from the location of the weapons depot, looking back Urban notices a giant dust cloud with a strange blue hue combined with it.

''Commander you still there and, what the hell did we just blow up I know that C12 is not that explosive and an ammo depot should not have such a large explosion.'' He says sounding a little worried.

''Ya were still here though that explosion nearly got us Cooper took the worst of it but he is fine nothing serious, I do know however that these bastards are definitely regretting fighting us now that must have been a good portion of the ground vehicles in the area, but right now we are still in hostile territory so we can talk later lets get our asses home.'' Anderson orders.

**Shanxi City**

**POV**

**Centurion Lucia Falraka**

Firing her Phaeston at the advancing Batarians from the third story of a building she was in with seven other Humans, she had been separated from the rest of her unit when the Batarians had used a mass wave of tanks to breakthrough. Chuckling at the memory of seen the Batarians faces when they were destroyed at the time she had been dumbstruck herself at how easy the tanks were dispatched, looking down at the street with the blood of the fallen and a now burning wreckage of the tanks that were recently destroyed. Shaking her head as She turns around and walks over to whom she assumes is the leader of this squad. While trying to block out the sounds of the heavy artillery battering the Batarian lines.

''You the one in charge sir.'' She asks sounding a little tired.

The man she looks at has strange hair around his mouth and his face heavily scarred and has two different eye colors and is leaning against a counter and nods his. ''Yip, I'm the guy in charge of this areas cluster fuck, let me guess you got cut from your unit when we were pulling out, well no worries you can stick with us till you regroup with your guys, It won't even be long because this was the second last line which means the General will put the plan into motion soon and then we can really start to kick these guys off our turf, till then we're gonna be running hit and runs to disorganize the bastards.'' He says confidently.

''We got another group down the road sir and we have contact with three other squads in the nearby buildings, orders sir.'' One of the human's report.

''Well breaks over ladies get your asses into gear and take a position we gonna hit the Bastards right in the kisser while they in between us, so where are the others?'' He asks loudly over the local net.

''Sir! The others are just across from us one building over to the right and the other squad is down the road with a clear view of the main advance.''

''Good, now we wait for em we launch the ambush on my signal.'' The human leader orders gravely.

The sound of hover tanks and marching of the enemies fills her ears as they close in, she taps her fingers over her Phaeston while shifting a little as they get closer. Looking into the street while in cover being careful not to give away her position, she sees a large amount of infantry with a column of tanks in their center.

''What the_ Spirits! are these people thinking there is a way too many down there for our three squads to deal with quickly and we don't even have tanks I am starting to agree with some of those rumors I heard from the others.'' _The sounds of the battlefield seem to disappear as she waits and it feels as if an eternity while waiting for the order to begin.

''**NOW!.**'' barks the squad leader as he along with three others leave there cover with large rocket launchers that have a large clip on their top, aiming at the vehicles.

A simple push of the button release there payload destroying the column two in the front one in the back while one missile was slightly off target hitting a Krogan that was with the group, The Vehicles are left smoldering ruins while the Krogan remains alive his lower half missing his entrails slowly falling out as he crawls backward to cover. The next moment a strange red cylinder falls on the top of them, which came falling out from one of the groups of soldiers from the other building and lands amid the confused Slavers. Coating them in a fiery inferno, the sounds of screams of agony rise as the sounds of gunfire fills her ears. The five remaining Batarian tanks start to raise their guns but are hit by more rockets destroying them.

She shoulders her Phaeston and sights a Batarian running for cover and quickly eliminates him, this happens in an instant as quickly as the fight began it is over, looking over the destruction she had helped cause she notices that the majority of the dead are either burning alive or are mutilated beyond what she thought was possible for normal small arms. Feeling sick to her stomach as she realizes that there are still a few Batarians are burning she raises her rifle to finish them off when a hand enters her peripheral vision pulling her shoulder bringing her face to face the leader.

''DID YOU NOT HEAR ME WE ARE MOVING OUT SO GET YOUR ASS IN GEAR WE DONT HAVE TIME TO WASTE!.'' Red in the face as he says this, he turns around a begins to walk away.

She begins to follow him, the sound of burning Batarians filling her ears trying to get over the horrific sight that the human weapons could cause. As they enter the street at a jogging pace, she notices that some of the squad have lifted the corpses of a few Batarians and leaving their grenades underneath them while others are laying strange packs with a strange beam left behind them. Looking to the sky as her group begins the trek back to their, base she notices that the sun is almost below the horizon.

The way back to the main front line is filled with multiple skirmishes and ambushes that were set up by the Humans and the regrouping of the forces that had been cut-off. Nearing the front lines, she notices that some of the bodies are using the armor of both the eclipse and blood pack mercenary company. ''This is interesting never would have thought that the mercs were slavers as well.'' She says aloud gaining the attention of the nearby Humans

''HA, you say these are mercenaries looks like they got thrown into the meat grinder to me, they may have well have sent kittens to do the job because some of the reports I have from the others indicate these mercs are no better than FNG's out of a half-baked militia program.'' chuckling breaks out among the assembled group of soldiers.

She doesn't comment or let them know her thoughts, she knew that mercs were by no means a real threat to the milliliter. Though they were at least a decent fight in her opinion all she knew was that the humans seemed to like cover and did not rely on their shields for some reason, she suspected that it had something to do with their shields not lasting.

The rest of the trip back to the front lines is quiet with a lot of twists and turns while also hiding.

The front lines become clear when the sound of weapons discharge becomes constant the squad fans out and disperses into the buildings right behind the Batarians backs.

''This is the plan men were going to get right on top of them so stealth kills only till my signal you get seen I'm gonna roast your ass if you're still alive, make it happen marines.'' The Human leader says quietly.

Lucia sneaks up behind a Batarian currently using a window for cover to focused to even see her, pulling out the Large knife a young human gave her earlier, raising it in a reverse grip and brings it down hard into the Batarians skull, he immediately goes slack and begins to fall to the floor only stopped when he is grabbed and lowered slowly, pulling the knife out it makes an audible, shplort! She wipes the blade that is covered in a red and small amount of Grey clean and brings her Phaeston to the ready.

Artillery lands near her location sending dirt and rubble all around, the shock-waves destabilizing her. _"I swear to the spirits that this is the last time I join a Human squad never thought I would be a part of such a mobile force, command will know that humans fight in such strange tactics should they ever become an issue." _

The commander makes a signal with his hand's that she doesn't understand. Minutes pass and a rumble in the air is heard, she sees a strange vehicle with treads and a main gun that was at least three times the size of the standard Turian tanks with a strange turreted box on the back of it that was moving around pointing to the air. Moving towards her from the human lines, her eyes dilate at the sight of the monstrosity as it begins to move and aim its weapon towards a Batarian tank that is in the lead of a large massed charge of Batarians.

**Field Commander Galek**

Field Commander Galek in charge of the Batarian Hegemony's 87th infantry company the seventh company of the name to desert their military. He stood around the corner of one of three different offensives trying to push further into the hostile lines. Currently, his Omni-tool was been used to show orbital pictures of the upcoming terrain. He was covered in soot and scorch marks with pieces of his left side armor was missing replaced by some bandage from a near strike artillery shell during his landing.

''GALEK!.'' shouts Admiral Porvan venom clear in his tone ''I want to know what is taking you so long to beat down these primitives? And where are the slaves I have yet to receive a single transport of them.'' He says in a rage.

He replies with a slight growl and barely restrained rage in his ''These, Primitives, As you call them have been putting up too much resistance and they refuse to surrender they just die, they are more stubborn than Krogan when it comes to giving up and my forces have been getting decimated throughout this entire assault, what I want to know is where is my cursed orbital support to crush them!.'' He growls out.

''Do your Job Galek and I will do mine and it is because of your lack of success in destroying those tanks that you lack what you require along with the fact that since you have failed to deliver on the goods that we can't risk bombardment, you have two day's left before I am pulling out so get to work.'' He snidely says as his transmission cuts offensives

''That's it, third platoon, you're with me these pathetic pyjacks don't know how to break through a simple defense position let's show them how we do it. FOR Khar'shan!'' He shouts leading the charge.

He goes around the corner followed by what is left of the third platoon along with the remains of his armor detachment leading the Charge. Firing his weapon from the hip, they retaliate with their own fire tearing apart his left flank, he dives for cover as the man behind him is torn apart by gunfire. ''Take cover behind the tanks they can handle this volume of fire!'' He says confidently.

He advances behind the lead tank, the next moment an earth-shattering BOOM! Is heard, he feels weightless and light-headed. He impacts the Ground with an audible thump the air in his gut leaving him. He turns his head towards the enemy and sees the tank he was using for cover in flame's and further ahead a group of vehicles he had never seen before.

He tries to stand only for his body to not respond looking down he notices that He no longer has half a body, his guts draped across the road the last thing he sees is the windows above him light up and their vehicles pushing them back, he hears nothing his last thoughts of how could they have beat the Hegemony.


	6. Chapter 6

**Delsooz class Dreadnought**

**POV**

**Admiral Porvan**

He stood aboard the newly arrived Decimation a Decapitator class Dreadnought the first of its kind and the strongest vessel the Hegemony had to date he was informed, which was currently on loan to his fleet encase they had issues with their planned raid and had been attached encase of possible issues. That was until this new race showed up, now he would use it to launch another strike at the next colony under the orders of the Hegemony, even if he could see clearly that he was under-strength with his current losses. Porvan could only go through his tactical display with so little going on in space, his annoyance with General Galak had only grown with his incompetence his ground forces were reporting close to seventy percent of all his deployed forces to be either combat ineffective or dead. It did not help that close to all of his armored vehicles that were carried in the fleet were already destroyed because of these upstarts' attacks on his supply depots on the ground was wiped out. He began to move to around the bridge surveying all of the information that was coming in he was now going through it after his talk with Galak and his lack of progress. He noticed something his XO was holding a data-pad and was continuously looking through it not doing his job of keeping an eye on the rabble he was dressed in and multicolored armor of red and green that showed his status off.

''What is going on that you seem to be so panicked Bazec.'' He states with venom clear in his voice at the displeasure of his people been so pathetic.

''Admiral... I went through our reserve forces, we have already deployed them, I was considering that we send the slaves to break their line's.'' He says confidently while his eyes darted everywhere but to him.

''No, we have the required men and I will not waste our stocks just to do the job's, and since we lack any return on these primitives, we would only make a loss.'' He says Snidely at him annoyed about not receiving any slaves and their losses.

Looking back to his tactical table he sees that the fleet is nicely stacked over the planet out of range of the orbital guns, and to ensure that any reinforcement fleet that they could only hit him from a certain angle, nodding he looked over his current fleet while not as large as his previous armada he was confident that it would be able to do the job, with the arrival of his new dreadnought and 30 more of the weak dreadnoughts along with 300 more cruisers and there 700 frigates to escort them.

He smiled it seemed that luck was on his side given that the reinforcement had allowed him to reinforce to roughly one-fifth of his old fleet. This would bulk his forces and their accompanying ground forces along with the majority of the raids forces meant for capturing his new slaves, were only a few hours out he would be able to truly show their superiority to these pathetic primitives he mused if only he had ordered all of the transports through this would have been over much sooner and he was certain his fleet now held the numbers to deal with that defense fleet.

He began to move towards his quarters as he was sure Galak could handle breaking this last line, of defense against such a weak force that held the line. He smiled yes; he could celebrate early he was completely certain that the Hegemony would break their backs. He took the elevator to his quarters so that he could enjoy his Asari slave a large murderous grin upon his face.

**The Artemis Destroyer Hunter Ellis**

Captain Kyle of the SSV Hunter Ellis had just arrived over the planet and was currently hiding among the enemy fleet taking orbital control of the colony. The entire crew was dressed in their armor their helmets attached to their sides in the event of been discovered they were all either jet black or a dark cobalt blue. Everyone was going over there sensors diligently while they were in the process of ensuring that they would not be detected when they got a hold of General Williams.

Sweat was evident across the captain's head as he tried to remain calm surrounded by so many combatants, he was confident that if they were discovered that they could warp out in time. Looking around his entire crew were showing signs of extreme anxiety then again who could be calm among so many hostile ships.

''Sir we are managing to get a secure connection but I would suggest that we not keep the line open to long unless we want to end up on the firing line.'' Roland the AI says dressed in Ninja garments.

He nods and begins to head to the communications since the ship was running silent. ''General Williams are you reading me this is Captain Kyle of the Artemis Destroyer Hunter Ellis.'' He calls out confidently.

He wait's a moment as the generals' systems and AI were likely ensuring that the comm's were secure and genuine. More than one general had lost their life or battle during the insurrection because people got careless.

''This is General Williams I'm so glad to hear your there Hunter what is the status of our reinforcements and the defense fleet and is it possible for you to get us some damned intelligence the few satellites we had were wiped out in the first engagement.'' His voice was hard with hints of relief.

A smile tugs to the captain's face hearing that they were still operating down on the planet. ''The status of our reinforcements are still on schedule and the defense fleet with our friends are currently getting a few things sorted out, and we will be on station to provide you with what is required we are going silent to gather your information we will send it ASAP.'' He says calmly. As he cut the communications not letting the General know that the defense fleet was separated and only starting to reconnect with one another.

''Okay people our guys on the ground seem to be holding out now let's give them a hand.'' He orders sternly.

**Tank Commander Erwin**

Commander looked down at his tanks tactical computer giving him the general locations of all the forces. Looking at the High definition screens showing the exterior of the vehicle, he could see the defense line was currently hammering into the advancing force. He came around the corner and saw a tank column advancing with their infantry using them for cover.

''Load Sabot and fire on lead vehicle wolverine 2 same target.'' He orders.

The first round takes out the advancing MBT shields and pushing it back while denting the armor, while the second shot takes the tank out of commission and the following infantry are torn apart by them.

''This is Wolverine lead, Dual sabot shot to be effective fire for effect, on incoming armor pick your targets, weapons free.'' He orders a small amount of confidence leaking through over the Armour company channel.

They begin their advance through the city slaughtering anything they come across, while the Alpha Platoon takes a high-speed route to their flanks the tank core advances with limited resistance. Their tank shields hold against hostile fire while the IFV's are showing signs of mounting damage.

''This is Leopard three we have to pull out can't take much more of this.'' The IFV begins to reverse only to take a rocket to the rear knocking out the engine block.

''AMBUSH LEFT'' Shouts the commander

The light armor near it quickly reverses and surround the damaged IFV to protect the crew while Wolverine seven and eight open up on the building with their weapons kicking up a wave of dust and rubble.

''Dammit, Wolverine seven and eight set up here for a fall back point the rest of us will push through we got more armor inbound, you keep our people safe and regroup once we breakthrough.'' He says calmly while looking for hostile armor.

The IFV is hooked up to another IFV and towed back while the rest of the task force advance towards the edge of the city while sweeping it out to secure their forward positions with Alpha Platoon.

''This is spearhead seven of task force Bravo we are under-way to Alpha mainline has been breached we are free for orders please advise command.'' He requests calmly.

**Captain Rayet Areash**

Her hover tank was cloaked and silently moving alongside three others towards a Batarian landing zone in the forest. Sweat rolled down her forehead from the tanks heat and the effort of her current mission she had been running disrupting attacks since their landing and her crew was tired.

''This is Lightning one we are in position for an assault on the base, Status?'' Her commander's voice came over the closed net used by her unit. She could hear her crew shuffling most likely doing a few last checkups even though they were ready. She heard over the net that lightning two and three were ready and her crew gave the sign for combat-ready as well when she looked at them.

The interior was cramped upfront with multiple controls and sensors, while further back it had space for a small storage area and held a small micro forge used to manufacture their munitions as long as it had materials. They were almost out she noted.

''This is Lightning four we're ready but need to RTB for resupply soon commander we are running low on Munitions and Materials.'' She reported vigilantly.

It only took a moment for a reply. ''Understood Lightning four we will head for a supply depot soon. All right all units move in and take care of priority targets weapons-free!'' The commander orders.

The Four hammerheads speed up rapidly as their weapons spun up. They exited the clearing at a high-speed right-on course for the Batarian base in a large clearing. Their weapons hitting transports and tanks in quick succession every few seconds while their Infantry weapons fired continuously destroying any chance of Cohesion.

Rayet could feel her tanks auto systems working overtime to keep her weapons loaded. Her tank shuddered as one the Batarians managed to launch an AT weapon only draining the shields a bit. One of her Mini-guns quickly ran him down shredding his cover alongside him.

The main gun fired making the Hammerhead shake a little. She saw on sensors that they had tanks on the way from nearer the city coming to protect the landing site. ''Pull out people we got incoming bogies Initiate mantis protocol Squad.'' The commander orders while their tanks take aim at the new threats.

They quickly disengaged breaking off into the surrounding coverage their engines readjusting before launching them into the air above the treetops. They would make it there separately to regroup later but not before they each took two of the tanks meant to reinforce the base.

The Batarian tanks would not pursue like a lot of their predecessors throughout the day.

**Lieutenant Trevor Everett**

He was currently in a fresh set of armor his previous set slightly damaged from a nearby explosive, his face carrying a small amount of medi-gel over his right cheek. He was currently seated in one of the Puma's been launched in the counter-attack now that command had deemed the hostile forces locations were in acceptable positions.

Looking around at the dimly lit cabin of two different combined squads all showing a slight amount of fatigue and mired by a few injuries or scorch marks or damaged armor his Grey eyes locking with his lifelong friend and offering a halfhearted smile trying to calm both his and her nerves.

''Okay listen up the offensive is about to begin our unit is going to be taking the most direct route and cut off their retreat we have two Apocalypse tanks attached to our unit so keep them safe, we are the advance force so good luck.'' Shouts their company's commander over Seventh companies comm channel.

The sound of the Puma rumbling to life, he could feel it accelerating it doesn't take long before he hears the sound of both, apocalypse tanks and pumas' main guns firing alongside the co axles. It only takes a few minutes before they come to a stop but it feels like an eternity.

''Alpha Platoon disembark you know your orders let get it done marines!'' Barks the Major

Disembarking while attaching his helmet to his armor, his audio systems pick up the sound of small arms in the distance as the city is encompassed in a fiery orange haze, while large numbers of marines alongside him are moving in perfect order to set up locations on the incoming forces.

''This is intense I wonder where their forces are and I wonder did we really push that far in or did they just not bother to leave any reserves.'' came the astonished voice of a private.

''they will be here soon enough, get your ass in gear marines sat scan shows we got at, least half of what's left of the landing forces in the area inbound on our location the real fight starts now.'' Comes the major's voice over the channel.

He takes a position inside one of the former foxholes in a good sniping position, only to find a corpse of a former Marine his gut completely blowing out.

''What the fuck happened to him.'' came the scared voice of one of his marines the rest of his squad also showing signs of discomfort at the site.

'' He's dead, get that body out there and collect his tags before we got more hostiles on top of us, It's do or die, people, we can grieve our dead after we make these bastards pay.'' He says his voice dead.

He crouches down and sets his post up while looking around the sounds of vehicles engaging throughout the city.

''Take cover the bastards set up an artillery position inside the city.'' Shouts the major as he dives for a foxhole.

The entire squad along with all surrounding units hit the deck taking cover in foxholes or small craters and dugouts to avoid shrapnel.

''Shit! When the hell did, they set up heavies.'' Screams a private folding in on himself in the foxhole. His Armour clean and undamaged while sounding a bit young shaking in fear. He is quickly shaking out of it by one of the men in the squad.

The artillery barrage does not let up but fails to connect with much of alpha platoon and continues, a call to alert everyone to their sensors because they are picking up movement up ahead. Looking over the edge of his cover he notices that the Batarians are charging them.

''Positive on Hostile's Engaging!'' Shouts the Lieutenant as he begins to fire into the hostiles as they move to cover and make a slow advance, his comrades join him in keeping them back making their shot's count, as their Armour goes weapons-free causing the hostiles to pull back a bit to avoid been completely obliterated, Artillery continues to blast away at the position not giving them any rest. The only sound that resonates along the line is weapons fire been traded and explosions and calls for a corpsman.

**Centurion Lucia**

Advancing with what remained of the Black-watch third platoon which numbered only eighteen soldiers in total, looking around she saw that most of their Armour was damaged or scorched from explosions and glancing blows, They were attached to the specialist squads that were currently advancing on the location of the artillery, they were making good headway sneaking around the backs of the Batarians, it didn't help that the last report that came in had the front lines were so screwed up because of all the different pockets of resistance, on both sides even if it was slanted in the defenders advantage, they had already been engaged five times before regrouping. They were now running and keeping low as they enter a building and reform only a few clicks out, they fan out to take up over-watch while she moves to discuss the plans to take out the threat.

''What's the plan of attack now that we are only two blocks out,'' she asks her voice hard and low.

Her commander looks at her contemplating their moves before he answers. ''The plan is simple from what we managed to gather they still hold all possible routes to get to the guns, which means we're going to have to punch through, time is of the essence the Humans seventh Advance Company is taking heavy fire but if we rush this then we are more than likely going to fail and if we engage and fail, chances are that the line that is now forming will break and cause issues for us down the line. While we push for their artillery it is going to focus on us to protect them, so I suggest we spread out into multiple fire teams, we then advance on them at the same time which should reduce the risk of us been wiped out by a bombardment, I want you on the right-hand flank when we push Centurion, also General Williams says we have artillery about to begin a counter-barrage as their Juggernauts are moving into position along with a three full platoons of ODST and once they begin shelling them we will begin the assault.'' He says sounding tired.

''Why not take out the Artillery with their own I mean they obviously have the ability?'' She questions while looking at some of the humans moving around.

''They can't apparently the Artillery is near something important so we have to do it ourselves.'' He says carefully.

She nods her head and moves towards were her platoon who were holding down the stairs and the nearby windows, when one of them see her approaching he says something and the squad leader who was watching the stairs switches out and moves towards her.

''Orders Ma'am,'' Juvus asks an impatient tinge in his harmonics while his stance is rigid.

''Yes, we will be moving out in a bit and the assault will happen once we have artillery support and we're going to be pushing up the right flank it would seem.'' She confidently remarks while taking in his appearance, his armor was scorched in multiple locations with shrapnel sticking out of it on his one pauldron. ''What has you so worried Juvus that you are been so aggressive.'' She asks calmly

''It's just. I don't like how were following orders from these people I will admit their good but if we had just engaged them and held the line then none of this would have happened and they're primitive.'' He says angrily while glaring at the humans.

She immediately signals for him to follow her while making sure the humans don't notice what is happening. She begins to move to a more secluded area in the building the moment she thinks she is out of range of her squad and the humans she rounds on him a levels a cold Glare at him.

''We are not discussing this here you are a soldier of the Hierarchy so act like it we were given an order we do not question it. This also happens to be their territory so they have the lead in how to defend it even if we don't like how it looks.'' She says while making sure that the Humans don't hear her.

She turns around to look further down the street that is covered in ruined vehicles and corpses. ''Their tactics seem to rely on mobility and effective use of their equipment. I am sure you have noticed that the humans have wiped out multiple pirate units operating in the city. I also have to wonder how long this fight would have lasted had they held the line like standard Turian Hierarchy tactics we would have been beating each other for days waiting for orbital supremacy. They use a different approach to us so adapt and survive.'' She explains while looking at the corpses of Humans and Batarians but mostly Batarians.

''I would also like to point out that I really don't want to engage these people, they have our fighting spirit with an almost krogan like brutality to do their duty. I have seen their weapons tear apart both Batarian and Krogan apart with their guns and their tactics, they are dangerous and quick to adapt while also not backing down from a challenge some turning into brutal combat, we must tread carefully with them.'' She says sternly only to slowly change to fear. The images of a Krogan that was blowing in half his guts flying across the street only for it to be replaced by the screams of burning Batarians. She shakes her head Juvus fails to notice the small panic attack.

''We just have to survive and follow our orders Juvus nothing else,'' she says quietly making her way back to the squad.

**Sargent Juvus**

''We're moving out,'' orders Lucia while following fire team one

He moved just behind her keeping constantly looking for new hostiles they enter the street, and begin to move to the right-hand side of the road while moving low to the ground, the sounds of battle all around them in the distance it is only a few minutes till they arrive, just outside the Batarians artillery line. He takes cover behind a vehicle they all lay low as he watches them.

_**''This is Sargent Farlow requesting artillery barrage on-grid 17E targets are designated'' **_Comes the voice of a nearby human over the local channel.

_''Roger this is fire group foe-hammer on standby for more targets! Redirecting to designated targets as requested. t-minus 20 seconds to impact'' _The voice of a human calmly answers.

The sound of artillery is barely heard over the noise of the surrounding area, the surrounding sound is broken by a high pitch whistle closing in on his position, he crouches lower behind his cover.

BOOM, BOOM, BOOM! Followed by more shells it continues to for what seems to be forever, he feels the ground shake beneath him the heatwave felt making him uncomfortable, looking over cover he sees that the entire defensive line is damaged all over the street.

_**''Fire mission successful thanks for the hand foe-hammer standby for further targets.'' **_the calm and slightly enthusiastic voice comes over the channel from the same human as before.

''Okay people advance we have our opening, weapons free!'' Shouts Lucia the sounds of weapons fire fill his ears.

They advance keeping a firm advance on them as the sun begins to rise at their backs, a long night of fighting past only for it to continue their advance is met with firm resistance, only to fall to well-placed weapons fire or support fire they advance until they reach just a block away from the artillery, he sees it slowly turning towards them and a heavy defense line is set up but scattered.

Two of the Human aircraft come flying in low looking ready to launch a strike on them only for a large amount of AA fire to start focusing on them. It forces them to break off as they only launch a single missile. It hit's the Batarian line smashing one of the few heavy weapons and surrounding area giving them a chance.

''This is the final push men keep up the pressure, the other assault teams are a few minutes away.'' Shouts Lucia over the channel it been slightly distorted.

They advance and slowly come to a standstill from heavy resistance they continue to trade fire, the next second one of his fellow Black-watch head jerks back after his barriers fail from a single high-powered shot his lower leg jerking slightly just after.

''SNIPER'' He shouts as he dives back into cover only for an accelerator round to pass where he was just standing, he looks to his right and sees the youngest of his group.

''You good with that sniper?'' He asks taking deep breaths while firing blindly over cover waiting for his shields.

''Yes sir.'' He responds confidently while throwing a grenade to flush more of them out, only for a heavy explosion to land a few meters behind their advance.

''Good we gotta advance and that sniper is an issue so I'm gonna draw his fire this is up to you.'' Steel in his voice

Saren nods, He moves to the edge of his cover and nods to Saren he raises his hand and waits, he hears a crack of the sniper again and takes a step out of his cover aiming at the sniper and firing, a HMG locks onto him and opens fire on him while the sniper shoots him at the same time the last thing, he sees is the snipers head jerk back as he feels bullets tear into him.

**Saren Arterius**

He was currently behind a crashed shuttle, artillery was raining down on his position from the last Batarian forces in the area. He was currently covered head to toe in dirt and burn marks his left arm aching from a ricochet and was covered in Turian bandages.

''Hold together there nearly on top of us!.'' shouts Lucia while blind firing over her cover.

Saren pulls around the corner taking aim and firing into the Batarian line's only to be knocked off his feet and flung into the open, dazed he only sees black his ears ringing the sounds of distant gunfire only heard over the ringing. He tries to move only for nothing to respond, he starts to regain his senses, he feels hands under his shoulders pulling him. He tries to speak only for it come out garbled and incoherent.

''Hang in there sol-.'' comes an unknown voice distantly

the sounds of vehicles passing by only to fade out to ringing, time seems to vary sounds going in and out of focus slowly becoming more focused as time goes on only able to make out certain sentences as time goes on.

''The counter-offensive is-'' he hears only for it to fade out again

he is laid onto something he doesn't know his hearing starting to become more lucid.

''What happened to him.'' came the voice of a Turian medic.

''Artillery shell landed on his position he was pulled out of some burning rubble a little while ago by his CO we did the best we could but his entire armor is locked up and his bio-metric reader is fried.'' came the familiar voice of Acvia sounding tired.

''Understood you take a seat there so I can look at you next your only looking slightly better than him.'' the nurse says calmly concern heard in a small amount of sub-harmonics.

The sound of others being treated are heard all around him while he feels his armor been pried apart, his helmet finally comes off and light flood's his senses seen a sterile white roof with a female Turian hovering over him.

''Good his conscious that's means it's not as bad as I feared can you talk?'' she looks at him kindly

Trying to speak but it still comes out as a gurgle, and the nurse recognizes the issue as well as looking at his now revealed arm she prepares a anesthetic to put him out as he is given an injection, as he slowly loses conscious he notices that his one arm is mangled and completely chard it's plating missing and some bone easily seen. A human medic at the entrance.

**Lieutenant Trevor Everett**

''We got more inbound, their relentless; guess we know what it feels like to deal with a stupid enemy from the bloody insurrectionists.'' He says to his squad and notices them gaining his face set in determination while he returns fire.

He hears a snort from an older soldier nearby. ''Kid this is nowhere near as bad as some of the things that war involved.'' the soldier says his voice sounding relieved while firing into the oncoming hoard

''Keep up the fire before they reach us.'' He shouts over the comm's while taking cover behind the remaining sandbags. '' You sure my father said that they used to use massed charges like it was the next best thing in the world.'' he says sounding thoughtful and a little strained while overloading a krogans barrier only for it to be finished by a heavy weapon.

The sound of HMG's and the tanks and IFV's increase in speed and ferocity his ears ringing the smell of blood metal and explosives his throat constricted trying to keep the bile from rising from all the shock waves of the artillery that was firing on them earlier looking over his cover. He fires at the advancing forces only to dive back into cover when his barriers flare-up. The squad continues to fire without fail feeling like an eternity as the advancing forces continue to walk over there fallen, he goes for a magazine only to come up empty.

''I'm out I need a MAG,'' he shouts to the surrounding soldiers.

''Here sir it one of my last make em count.'' Says shadow the squad's infiltrator as she holds up her last MAG.

He nods and reloads his gun and takes a single shot at a Batarian in the head his barriers all ready taken care of, he begins to hear calls for more ammo knowing that there almost out there forges out of material only a few minutes earlier, a good portion of the line begins to use their secondary's and it holds them back, for a few minutes as more of the platoon starts to switch over to there hold out pistols which start to cause the Batarian barriers to last longer.

''There getting close now boys fix Bayonets!.'' Shouts the major doing just what he said while taking cover

''Is he Insane.'' exclaims one of the privates his statement mirrored by a few others as they shift nervously while attaching their bayonets on their weapons.

''No he ain't we're out of ammo we have to take the fight to them if we want any chance of seen this to the end.'' He says confidently while fixing his bayonet.

The air is tense as they hear the advancing forces moving further to deal with them his breathing deep, he hears the rumble of long-range guns and explosions hit the rear and center of the advancing line while the Batarian front line is hit with their armored support and a few grenades.

''CHARGE!'' Bellows the Major and he along with the entire line spring out of there cover charging them shocking the Batarians momentarily, but that is all they need as bayonets sink into them completely decimating their front line. He stabs his knife through the neck of a Batarian only to pull it out and sweep it to the right and cutting another one's arm off and then finishing him off, more come and he fights aside his men the sounds of blades cutting through armor and flesh as they continue the offensive.

The fight continues as each side cuts one another down soon the battle is over, as their reinforcements arrive the dead litter all over the plaza, He is covered in blood as it slowly drips off his Armour and weapon he sees that there are Turians both from alpha platoon and the reinforcements all in shock at the brutality of the CQC that they had just witnessed.

**Commander Irene Of heavy infantry company Anubis**

The Heavy infantry company was split into four different assault teams clearing out the city. They marched through the rubble and body filled streets the sounds of sporadic gunfire filling the sensors, they moved in perfect unison while they crushed any hostilities in rapid succession Music blaring **(Hell march)** as they cleared out of what remained.

''This wasn't fair why did the general only let us out to play now!'' Whines Irene over half the company agrees with her some voicing their agreement.

''Look on the bright side we know that there is more coming, the General said that he had a special assignment for us once this objective is done.'' States one of her companions sounding enthusiastic.

Irene nods ''Your right maybe we are in for a treat I guess only time will tell.''

They continued their path of destruction obliterating anything they ran into. By half day all fighting in the city was over a city of damaged buildings and rubble are all that remained.

**General Williams**

He sat in his office surrounded by operators giving out his orders the bunker smelt of palm trees in the summer, He was currently going over the reports from the counter-offensive and noticed that all hostile forces were no longer in a cohesive force, and were just holdouts and nodded proudly of what his forces had accomplished, He knew that while they had only repulsed the arriving forces, he was sure that the worst was yet to come, He signed this was going to be a long few days until the fleet arrived until then, he had given orders to reinforce the city and he had pulled the militia to reinforce the inner city with traps and lay in wait.

The outer city had become layers of trenches and minefields while the heavy infantry had dug into the forest, waiting for the next wave because the coming battle would truly test him he had already lost close to forty% percent combat effectiveness, he assumed it would have been worse had it not been for there shields working he had only lost thirteen percent of all the casualties were KIA. Looking over the plans he could only hope.

''General you should get some rest before the next wave and the remaining hostiles are a limited threat that anyone can deal with, we can't have you out of commission for the next engagement.'' Came the concerned voice of Irene her holo avatar appearing to look at him even if she was out in the field.

He nods and begins to head for his Quarters thoughts of the upcoming battle his only focus.

**Admiral Porvan**

He was currently in the command center filled with his officers and was in a rage and had already shot two slaves, and injured one of his men his face etched in a deep scowl. ''DID they manage to destroy their orbital defenses!.'' He yells at his command staff.

A trembling officer tried to speak but was cut off by his rant.

''Of course not you are all worthless pieces of crap, command put me in charge of pirates that are incompetent fools incapable of doing anything once the true army arrives we will deal with these Primitives.'' He howls out.

He grabs a data-pad and throws it at a display of the planet breathing deeply. ''Leave me I have to plan.'' He moves to his chair and sits his face contorted in anger, his fist under his chin while looking at a display of the planet that his forces on the planet were in complete disarray.


	7. Chapter 7

**SSV Unity**

**POV**

**Anita Goyle**

She walked off of her shuttle followed by a few of her diplomatic party. They had recently landed onboard one of the few hangers bays of the Unity, a super battleship and the flagship of the fifth fleet. The hanger was filled with shuttles offloading supplies and a few personal from Arcturus station. It's dark gray hanger deck gleaming from the ships light as it shook every once in a while, when a shuttle didn't land carefully.

Military personal were moving around in what appeared to be organized chaos as Ai unloaded heavy equipment. The hanger was patrolled by armed squads each watching over them their helmets most likely scanning them to ensure that there were no saboteurs.

She noticed a small squad of soldiers were moving towards her group, they were a mixed group of marines and AI most likely meant to escort her group around the ship. They approached her group which held only three people in total including her.

There was Doctor Bathory Mengela one of the top Xenobilogists in her field. She was known well in the science division for being slightly reclusive and pushed moral limits. She was only aboard to ensure that the crew that conducted the meetings were not infected by some kind of bio-weapon.

Beside her stood one Jacob Stein one of Humanities better historians. He was attached to the group in case the alien governments were asking questions involving their history. He seemed nervous and was constantly looking around for something.

Her group came to a stop in front of their escort and were quick to snap off a quick salute towards the squad's officer. ''Diplomatic party reporting for duty Sir.'' She says calmly while looking at the Lieutenant.

''At ease. I am Lieutenant Faye and I am here to escort you to command for your assignment, follow me.'' Says Lieutenant Faye while turning around abruptly as her squad surrounds her group setting a rather fast pace.

''What's going on that so much ordinance are being loaded, I haven't seen a warship this loaded up since the Insurrection?'' She asks as the pass a large loader carrying a large number of ship ordinance.

''Don't know something has the admiral busy these day's and it's not the Harpy it hasn't been sighted in weeks near the relay network.'' Answered one of the escorts his voice projected out of the helmet's speaker. He was most likely a Seargent by the fact that he was posted to a super battleship she thought.

Faye moved down the hallway to an elevator and signaled for them to get in. ''It does have to deal with pirates just not ours apparently an alien patrol ran into a large fleet of pirate ship's and fled to Shanxi. An information package was sent out just before your arrival with all the information.'' Faye said calmly while selecting the destination for the elevator.

This drew a few sharp looks from her escort as well as her companions. ''I see, I was only notified some hours ago about the first contact along with some critical information, I think that report was further down the list of critical information such as some rather stupid laws if you ask me.'' She says thoughtfully.

The elevator comes to a stop as the doors open it reveals a small tram station moving personal and material. They are led to the nearest platform that is open by the Lieutenant who once ensuring that their all on board selects their destination.

Stein looks at the passing platforms and personal the platforms only having a small solid fence and overhanging metal cage before looking to the Lieutenant. ''I have to ask but why are the platforms enclosed like a cage?'' He asks calmly while glancing at a passing platform.

The lieutenant shakes her head. ''You never been aboard a large ship? Guess it doesn't matter, It's for safety in case the gravity gives out while stuff is been used don't need anything fancy.'' She says dismissively.

They come to a stop for a moment only for it to quickly start ascending towards a higher deck. ''Damn this thing is huge how does this thing not take up so much space?'' Goyle asks sounding curious.

''Don't ask us do we look like a bunch of engineers, from what I know only super ships or packers have these types of systems, apparently the smaller ships don't need such things to move hardware around. I heard the poor bastards on Battleships have to lug hardware to hangers sometimes so that their shuttles can move it to the other side of the ship, as far as I am concerned this is one big security risk, then again it would be a pain to move around without it.'' Says Lieutenant Faye as the tram come's to a stop after a moment near the bridge.

She leads them to the entrance of the bridge in silence, as they pass a small mess hall they hear something on the news. _''The new shipyards in the sol and Avalon systems are expected to launch they're first ever ship's in the coming week, followed by other shipyards that were commissioned some years ago and were meant to be dedicated to the building of dest-.'' _They fail to hear more as its door closes

Before any of them can start to question what they hear they arrive at the bridges main door. It was a large metal door easy for three people in armor to fit through, though what caught her attention was some strange outlines no doubt hiding easy access cover and hidden turrets and focused her attention to the bridge.

The guards stationed around the door looked at them or more specifically the diplomatic party, their helmets no doubt scanning them and an AI most likely double-checking that their no threat. ''Helmets off .'' One of them orders while another seems to be getting information from someone.

They wait in silence as the guards go through multiple checks ensuring their captain and admirals safety. Her only indication of their safety been that they're not at weapons point. ''Your cleared but not without an escort.'' The lead guard said his voice modulated by his helmet while indicating he was speaking about her, not her team.

An unknown signal goes off and two of the twelve guards on the door move while her original escort steps away with her team and move further away, she guessed they were going to wait for her to finish her briefing with the Admiral.

She sighs before giving a nod to her new escorts who lead her into the large bridge. It was filled with multiple stations around the room a large tactical table in the center slightly raised. It displayed the Arcturus system and all the navies task-forces of the alliance in blue symbols while civilian ships were displayed in orange, while separate ships were indicated with a darker orange indicating them as possible hostiles.

The Fifth fleet was different all of its vessels were indicated in Green. The captain of the vessel moved around checking on various report's and the people at their stations, while the admiral sat in a chair near the tactical table going over something she couldn't identify.

_''This is going to be a long day, I just had to be on Arcturus now I have to deal with all of this. I wonder if this will be easier than having to deal with one of the outer colonies during the insurrection.'' _She thought sadly then noticed that the captain had a distinct Russian look and closed her eyes praying he wasn't a pain in the ass.

**The Citadel Salarian Embassy**

**POV**

**Councilor Varlin**

He was once again going over the report from the STG team that had witnessed the first contact with an unknown race and he wanted to shoot the Hierarchy. The report seemed to outline the different types of ships involved and what they could gather from different networks.

The picture it painted was a little grim, the report seemed to list a lot of worrying possibilities. He kept going over the fact that this was a very small colony holding a single large city with what appeared to be several small settlements, and that it held a small defense fleet that held five dreadnaughts of which four were the same size as his people's dreadnaughts and nearly as armored as the Elcors dreadnaughts.

His people were already in the design process of his people's new dreadnaught that would finally have the power that modern ones required. He brought up a small diagram of it and put it next to the new race's heavy dreadnaught.

Even incomplete the new Salarian dreadnaught seemed to only rate as moderately dangerous compared to this new ship. The Salarian dreadnaught measured at one point six kilometers long nearly double that of his people's standard dreadnaught and only eight were planned on been built. The dalatrass was already asking them to go over the designs to improve it yet again stalling it from deployment yet again.

The door to his people's embassy opened and Councilor Tevos walked in looking almost eager at the new information. He mentally sighed at the Asari and her condescending attitude he wished he could have avoided this job it would have made his life easier. Quickly swapping out the new dreadnaught for his peoples standard one and mentally cringed at its results as he looked at Tevos.

''Hello Tevos lovely day it seems, I assume that you have received the in-depth report from the team that witnessed the battle?'' He asks keeping his voice sounding as if he were interested while standing up and looking out past the citadel towards its defense fleet in the distance it numbering around twenty-five thousand warships. They were nothing more than dots at the furthest point but he could see the three Asari super dreadnaughts in the rear ranks.

Tevos smiles at him not noticing a few small details that he could never pick up. ''Yes, it does seem to be a better day than most as of late and I did receive the report.'' She says moving to the balcony while overlooking the presidium she focuses on one of the patrols mostly made up of Asari.

''I find it interesting that we got so little information from your team, I would have thought that they could gather more information than simple scans and outdated information,'' she says calmly while an Asari attendant brought in some tea for her.

''All is fine, I am sure the patrol fleet will bring us more information, I do wonder how the Hierarchy will deal with this, Caivus seems most interested.'' He says as a report came in about the fleet dispatched to the relay and its plans.

This seems to draw Tevoses attention to his computer and the results for his people's old Dreadnaught. He noticed that her smile became a bit more smug than usual while she looked at the results. Before she looked at him again looking like she wanted to discuss it but let it pass and focused back on him.

'' Yes, he does seem quite interested then again a new race that has so many dreadnaughts before contact.'' She let out a long-suffering sigh. ''It doesn't matter what he thinks, this race will fall in line and maybe be a client race to my people don't you think?'' She asked while looking at him critically.

He just nodded his head while making sure to look like he was agreeing to her opinion while not providing an answer. ''I doubt this new race will be easy to convince after all they are dealing with a large slaver raid at the moment they might just like the Turians.'' He says thoughtfully.

A notification on Tevoses Omni-tool alerts her to something which seemed to make her twitch as if something was either exciting or surprising. ''It seems something came up, I will see you later.'' She says calmly while standing and heading for the door.

He noded while focusing back onto his terminal. ''I understand Tevos, also send my regards to your daughter she seems nice.'' He says while bringing up more information on his people's current plan's as the door is closing.

**Omega**

**POV**

**Aria t'loak**

Looking over the club of afterlife watching her subjects amble about the club she maintained her calm and cold facade for all to see. She moved away and took a seat as she signaled for a drink while one of her messengers approached her.

He was a Batarian and his two lackeys followed him while her guards scanned them for anything that could harm her. She noted that only one of them seemed calm and would have to rectify that. She raised her hand when they were close enough only giving them a small raised eyebrow as they were forced to stand.

She waited for her drink while they stood their two of them looking everywhere but her. One of her men approached and gave her some of her personal stocks, taking her time to enjoy it well looking at them. ''Why are you here.'' She asked calmly well glaring at the leader.

He took a moment to answer but seemed to hesitate for a moment.'' The Piracy of Bateria launched their raid as we notified you, it had some unforeseen consequences when a Turian patrol attempted to escape through a newly activated relay. The admiral decided to chase them and found a new race, Our leadership has declared them the new target and would like to notify you that they need reinforcements to succeed.''

A gunshot rings out silencing him and the club for a moment. The club returns to normal not caring for the gunshot knowing what had happened. While her guards moved to clean up the body and the messenger's men seemed stunned one was quivering while the other one seemed to be fine.

She looks at the nervous subordinate glaring at him. ''I don't like my time been wasted by trivial things, I also certainly don't like been told what to do. I have one rule and it seems that someone needs some reminding, let your leaders know what my answer is, you may leave.'' She says coldly but points at the calm Batterian. ''You. You stay I find that you might have some spine, you work for me now.'' She states while opening up her Omni-tool and dialing her Admirals.

The Messenger leaves a distinct smell leaving his armor while the other one is guided away from her. The connection establishes and shows a Krogan on the screen. '' Notify the fleet we might have some company soon.'' She disconnects and looks towards one of her people an Asari.

''Put out the word that any Batarian ship is now to be watched and that their now paying double to operate and if they don't pay put out the word, also get me all the information that is gathered on this new race I want to be prepared.'' She says calmly while staring at her drink contemplatively before downing it and standing. ''I don't want to be disturbed unless necessary get to work.'' She says over her shoulder .

**Bateria Piracy HQ**

''So, our agents managed to do the task yet he still lives and seems to have caused even more issues then?'' Questioned on of the leaders while reading a report.

''Yes even if it is profitable this new contact will cause us problems in the future.'' Stated another one of the surrounding members in the room.

''I see he won't live and this was needed for the Plan while it is a shame that so many of our people died it was necessary, It at least got rid of all the fanatics in our ranks.'' Stated another

''Indeed it won't be long now only one more generation and it will see success but they will watch us. I just hope we don't suffer any more setbacks.'' Says a fourth member of the gathering

They all nod and an unseen signal let's them know that the meeting is over.

**ISV Harpy**

**Susan 'Silver Eye'**

Her cybernetic eye scanned over the latest report that had come in from her informants and looked quite promising. There were multiple targets for her to either steal from though a report on an unguarded ship graveyard from the insurrection of a battle that held mostly light ship's. She looked at the possible salvage and possible craft and noted that there were two heavy cruisers in the graveyard and the site was only a day away from her current position.

She looked away from her report and stood up doing a quick stretch and made her way for the elevator while moving out of her quarters that was decorated to her tastes. She grabbed her pistol and attached it to her armor and ensured that its barrier was working before leaving her quarters.

The Guards outside her quarters moved into position quickly while she moved not paying them any attention, She entered the elevator while bringing up a link to her second in command. ''Edward I've decided on our next heading, were going to a nearby graveyard to see if we can't gather some supplies I want the fleet prepared. I also got word from one of our informants the Alliance is moving a lot of hardware all of sudden rather rapidly I want us ready in case they found us.

Well doing this she composed a message to an old friend in the military to be sent when in range of a comm buoy. The elevator opened up onto the command deck which was in order and clean well her crew moved around directing her small fleet.

''Also Edward make sure to order some of the good stuff I got a feeling we're going to be busy soon also make sure our scavengers find a piece of armor to fix up section nine.'' She says casually well moving towards the Hanger

Edward answered her back over the ship's system. ''You got it boss also want me to throw anything else in there you know a special masseuse for you or just the Alcohol and the pathetic Tea from Reach, I'm telling ya that stuff is poisoning ya also please don't damage another fighter.'' He says letting the whole crew hear their discussion.

''Edward do me a small favor, and shut the fuck up on the ships PA, my people are working and don't need to hear your bloody voice it's annoying well entering the hanger and moving to her fighter.'' She says well staring at the ceiling. ''Also that was one bloody time and I said it was the bitches fault for getting in my way so, fuck off and get me that crap and add in a bloody masseuse.'' She says while getting into her fighter.

**Admiral Shepard**

**Aboard the NOMAD Colossus Class Packer**

She was currently sitting on the edge of her bed in her quarters the lights set to give off almost no light only illuminating the room slightly. Her black hair tied back in a ponytail while she went over the data, that was received her green eyes sharply focused, looking over the information sent from both the Hunter Elis and the VIXEN, they had lost contact after the last report which was grating the fleets nerves.

The data-pad currently had images of the fleet over the planet and was focused on the multiple Battle-cruisers in the center, bringing up the analysis of the ships capabilities showing that they were marked as a moderate threat, which was geared to the destruction of the lighter vessels in her fleet while all the other ships were marked as low-level threats. This coupled with the reports that said they had near non-existent point defenses and poor maintenance signs, had caused a great deal of stress to be relieved her for the upcoming battle, knowing that her strike-craft compliment would not be badly affected and that her casualties for them would be light.

Looking towards her clock she noticed that it was the ships night cycle. She got up and downloaded the information from the ORCA and left her quarters, entering the brightly lit corridors of the NOMAD noticing that there were still a few members of the crew moving around, she made her way to the mess hall while thinking about her plan to retake the colony. She knew that the fleet would come out on the edge of the system out of sensor range. The thing that bothered her was that she could no longer get in contact with the remaining forces in the system which meant they were either dead or blocked by ECM she was really hoping that it was the second option.

Entering the mess hall she found it mostly empty and headed to her secret stash of Reach Tea so that she could calm her nerves, while she waited for the water to boil she opened her Omni-tool and looked through the data, it showed that the colony had repulsed the first wave of invaders but the city was in ruins and General Williams setting up for more incoming forces. And nodded her head in approval she knew of General Williams reputation as an extremely reliable Commander who would always try to get as many of his people home.

Looking around she noticed an ensign sitting alone at one of the tables fidgeting looking pale and nervous in his navy uniform, she walked over towards him unnoticed. ''Can I sit here?'' she asks kindly.

The ensign jumps slightly his head swiveling around to her immediately. ''of ... course Ma'am.'' He stammers out trying to maintain eye contact failing miserably, as his fidgeting becomes slightly worse.

Taking a seat directly across from him while she looks at him intently thinking of what to discuss with him and how to speak to him. '' The names Jennie yours?'' She asks softly figuring that coming on too strong would scare the young man away.

He looks startled for a moment. ''Oh, sorry ma'am it's Ethan.'' He answers quickly as they fall into a quiet silence for a moment.

''What can I do for you Ma'am,'' he asks quietly while focusing everywhere but her.

Looking at him carefully her eyes looking at him carefully. ''We're off duty for the moment so call me by my name. And let me guess first deployment fresh out of the academy? '' she says as if it were a fact and asks kindly while looking at him with a smile and drinks her tea.

He just nods his head while he looks towards the tea his head tilting to the side slightly. ''Yes Ma ... Jennie and that doesn't smell like the usual military tea,'' he asks slightly more confident eyeing the tea.

She nods her head glad he doesn't know that she is an Admiral ''Yes Special stash that I have, you nervous about the coming Battle was only about a day out now.'' She says quietly her smile dropping slightly thinking of the possible losses that she will have to take.

He nods his head his eyes closing looking up slightly, she notices that his hands are shaking. ''It's all right to be afraid of what's coming, you just have to trust in those around you to do their job and do yours, it means that others can depend on you and that more people will make it out of this. Just don't be a hero but do your duty and more of us will make it out of this.'' She says sternly experience coating her words

He looks at her intently taking her words to heart but gives her a questioning look. ''You seen a lot of action Ma... Jennie?'' He asks nervously correcting his slip up.

She nods her head her mood dropping thinking back to the insurrection and the loss of so many of her friends. ''Ya have seen way too much of it if you ask me, just our luck that we would be throwing into the fire so soon after the last war,'' she says dejectedly her voice tinged with regret.

Taken off guard slightly by the way her mood seemed to change, he started to get nervous again not sure what to do. ''sorry, I didn't mean to bring up something sensitive.'' he says quietly staring at the table looking guilty.

Startling Shepard out of her thought's while looking a little sheepish at letting her emotions control, rubbing her hand over her face and taking a deep breath. ''It's fine slightly my fault. I have to get to my duties thanks for the talk'' she says quickly while leaving the room as fast as possible.

''Good luck, Ethan'' she says quietly on her way out barely heard.

Taking a rail system towards the hangar bay trying to clear her thoughts of the past, while looking at the display in the system used to see space, she could the strange silvery blue glow of her ships FTL. The elevator came to a stop and allowed her to disembark, looking through the hanger she could see the deck crews working hard to prepare the ship's complement of strike-craft.

Looking over them she could only wish that she had these kinds of fighters during the Insurrection when she was a pilot, while her old star-fury fighter would always remain a great fighter in its own right, these new ones were just leagues ahead of what they had during the insurrection both the old version Phoenix which was introduced three months before the war, then again she mused even those old things would give these council races strike-craft a run for there money. A small grin on her face at that thought.

Deciding that she couldn't do anything till they arrived in the system since it was already planned, she made a move towards the simulators. Moving towards them trying to think of what was to come if she made it through this next fight and what Scenario would test her skills she missed her old fighter.

**Irene Shanxi Forest**

She was currently caked in dirt and foliage digging in a pitfall trap just ahead of the line, the hidden bunkers that were meant to hide her unit were low to the ground, just high enough for their guns to tear into anyone who tried to advance. She looked towards the camouflaged tanks that were meant to help hold the line, they only had eight of them spread out their guns poking out of there hiding spots in the rubble on the outer edge of the city.

Continuing her mission of fortifying the area bored with such a simple job. Her thoughts drifted towards the people she had just lost in space, how she would no longer get to banter with the Captain or the funny attempts of Jimmy trying to flirt with her only to be terrible at it. The last thing that plagues her is how was she going to tell Alex's family about what happened if he didn't make it back to them. Looking up to the stars and closing her optics clearing her thoughts and focusing, She dug with more determination pushing her systems to their max, she would make the bastards pay for what they had done, she would have her revenge she owed her friends that much.

The sounds of vehicles and infantry moving in the forest mixed with weapons fire let her know it was going to happen soon. She would have her revenge soon because the next wave was on the move.

**Major Victus Aboard the Dreadnought HSF Guardian**

He was currently going over what the STG had managed to gather from these new race's vessels. He was deeply impressed by what he had managed to see them do to the slaver fleet even if it was terribly outdated. He looked around his Grey and blue Armour shining in the ship's lighting, the crew of the ship was currently on its graveyard shift so there were few currently manning the terminals, getting up and working loose all of his mussels from his long sitting, hearing a satisfying pop in his joints he made his way to the observation deck.

Walking through the dimly lit corridor he reflected on his military career, many had called him an unorthodox leader whenever he leads his men, he mused that he often had men transferring out of his command because of how he did things but he always got the job done with as few casualties as possible, He had heard he was been considered for a promotion to general Though he was only thirty at the end of his third tour of duty.

Entering the observation deck he noticed that it was empty, Taking a seat trying to make sense of why they had missed such a large group of ships. _''We should not have missed this our informants should have seen it coming, so why is it that STG couldn't notify us they have a vast network there was no chance they missed it.''_

Thinking back to all the previous engagements with the pirates he couldn't help but loathe the council for not acting, it was no secret among the navy that the terminus fleets were getting large. If not outdated and that the number of engagements that occurred, he had heard reports that there were around seventy skirmishes in the last month. That wasn't including the full blowing engagement between three fleets and a small armada, which of course was the current issue, which was causing the patrol fleets to be under-strength lacking a few of their dreadnoughts and escorts not to mention the fleets massive refit. Then there was the Common Wealth he had considered joining them when he was younger but now they were in the same boat as the Hierarchy stuck on defending their Territory because they lacked the fleet size to strike back at the Terminus fleets without costing them too much.

Looking out into space he could see the blue hue of the FTL drive, he could only watch as time slipped past him thinking of all the current issues plaque the Hierarchy and the battle that would happen in seven days in the unknown system. He also mused at how one of this new race's dreadnought would stand against one of the Hierarchies.

**The Reaver**

**POV**

**Admiral Ka'hairal Kaprak**

He was currently standing in a brightly lit room surrounded by his command staff waiting for a priority message to be decrypted. It came from his command so he had assembled his most capable men to discuss what it meant. His fleet was currently just a relay jump away from his designated relay for Operation Ravenous, he along with two other armadas would hit a council seat race and take as many of these people for the Hegemony he was meant to hit the Salarians.

A sniveling communication officer came towards him with a data-pad his posture weak and unworthy. ''Admiral Command wants us to go through relay 314 and group with Admiral Sotok and Balak, It says that there is a new race, that he encountered and we are to help gather as many of their kind as possible. ''He says in a nasal voice keeping minimal eye contact.

Kaprak nodded with what was said and went over the information in his head getting a distant look. ''I see, set a course for it what is our expected time of arrival.'' He orders.

''six days to the new races system Admiral if we push the limits of the ship.'' Says the Navigation officer.

''I know that our fleets were all stationed near one another encase we ran into a patrol guess it paid off this time.'' He muses to himself

''Admiral we are only a relay jump away but it will take us a few hours to get the fleet to form up and get moving towards the relay 314, and our best estimates put our meet up only 2 hours difference with the other fleets.'' says the navigational officer confidently.

He turns around and moves to the center of the bridge where his chair was positioned higher than anywhere else in the bridge. ''Good that means that we will be able to conquer the planet of this new race within the week.'' Sitting down looking over the information that was sent only skimming it before putting it down.

His Xo approached him with his posture proud and arrogant. ''Admiral what are the plans for once we arrive at their system.'' he questions.

He looks at his Xo giving him a mild glare ''We don't need a plan to deal with primitives, we go there we invade and we take their people they are no threat to us, I doubt that they have anything that can be a threat to us, I doubt that they even have a navy that can compare to us and the Piracy will crush them, also the Turian fleets are to spread out to be a threat for the time been.'' He states Confidently.

Dismissing him as he gets up and moves to leave and enjoy the comforts of his quarters. ''Do your jobs you pieces crap and get us there ahead of time I want a good hall, I find any of you failing in your duty you will be introduced to the airlock.'' He barks out while leaving his head turned just so he can see behind him. Noting that their combined number would put the fleet around fifteen thousand ships.

**Federation third fleet**

**The Occisor**

**POV**

**Admiral Novus**

Admiral Novus was old he had been in the Commonwealth navy since they only had about a hundred Dreadnought class vessels some fifty years ago when he joined up. He watched as his people moved around the ship relaying their orders to get underway.

He wore a red and white armor suit his face old and slightly scared from combat. The CIC was bright and filled with people doing their job. He looked at what his fleet was made up of. While he was aboard A Turian Dreadnought he could not but help focus on both the ISA and Quarian Dreadnought's that were larger and better armored. He did not doubt that in a hundred years the Commonwealth would have ships like that but for now, they would use slightly smaller Dreadnought to keep them safe.

The Fleet on sensors was massive it Held two thousand warships of each government in the Fleet. They numbered each at eight hundred cruisers and one thousand two hundred Frigates. While the dreadnoughts were attached at their own leisure. He had Thirty Commonwealth Dreadnoughts and fifty Raloi Dreadnought vessels but the true power of the fleet was the ISA and Quarian Dreadnoughts with five been Quarian and Single ISA Dreadnought they would be truly dangerous.

He did not doubt that the coming engagement would push his fleet to the limit. He would rest now and trust his troops to do what was necessary but seven days from now he knew that it may be his last.

**Talon**

**POV**

**Admiral Orinia**

Going over the sensors that were currently linked to the Alliance ships in the system trying to figure out a plan of action. Currently, they were hiding in the gas planets atmosphere which was causing all kinds of issues on their sensors, the only ships not affected were the stealth ships that were relaying all of the information.

Looking up from her terminal and blinking the tiredness out of her eyes, she had barely slept since they had fled from the colonies orbit, she tried to come up with plans. All of which would see to the remainder of her fleet either destroyed or crippled, sighing she closed the terminal and made her way to get something to eat while dismissing any crew that saluted her.

As she walked to the mess hall she passed the med-bay and grimaced, it was nearly filled with wounded from all of the impacts her ship had taken, the burdens of the previous engagement easily seen if one were to look closely. Her posture was proud but her walk was slightly sluggish and her eyes showing pain and rage.

Bringing her Omni-tool up and looking at the countdown till the arrival of the human fleet. Less than a day out, she just wished that the Batarians hadn't wised up and began to jam all the reports coming from the planet and we're looking for signals out of the system.

She made her way to possibly would be one of her last meals thinking of what was to come and maybe to take some sleep medication to help her actually get it so she did not have to think about the report that would say how the Humans had made thousands of years of space combat tactics useless.

**The Resolute**

**POV**

**Captain Alex**

The remainder of the fleet besides the carrier group was currently in an adjacent system hiding. They were in the middle of field repairs and running on radio silence to avoid detection. Alarms suddenly blared across the fleet as a ship appeared near their location.

Captain Alex Montgomery was on the Bridge when it happened. He looked towards the tactical table making his way to it. While also ordering one of his men to bring him some armor. ''Rebeca what have we got.'' He demands his voice croaky from overuse.

''The ship is broadcasting it's Alliance IFF code on low-frequency channel, Nothing to worry about Captain it's just a Hermes Frigate from the battle they were attached to the Carrier fleet. They are attempting to contact us.'' Rebeca says sounding relieved.

He nods his head as a message goes out to his fleet to stand down. ''Good let's find out what happened to our carriers and the Turians.'' He says softly trying to avoid speaking too much.

**Unknown**

**POV**

**Sensor operator**

Strange energy readings were detected not far from on her system for the fleet. She noted the disturbance and tried to get more information. ''Ma'am I have energy readings coming in on DRADIS from one of our probes.'' She calls out to her ship's captain.

''I see prepare the fleet for jump we have to make sure that it's not them set fleet to status two and prepare our pilots and pray that our gods are with us.'' The captain orders calmly to her crew.


	8. Chapter 8

**Beta: Whitetiger62512 - Thanks for doing the work to help fix up my errors**

**Carlthomson: Yes there will be Battlestar Galactica involved and a few other universes as well which I have some ruff ideas on but not implemented yet. That will be explored later.**

**storyseeker7: Will it get messy yip.**

**Admiral Orinia on board the TALON**

She was currently in the sparing ring with Sabelus one of the few infantrymen aboard her ship engaging in CQC, they had already gone multiple rounds trying to beat each other. ''This is getting annoying having to wait for reinforcements, while our people are stuck on that colony.'' Growled out Sabelus, as he sent a jab at the Admiral only for it to be blocked and countered with a swift kick to his leg.

''They will be here soon enough and we can pay them back in full,'' states Orinia only to narrowly avoid a leg strike.

Blocking her counter strike only to be hit by a quick jab to the chest Sabelus loses his balance and is quickly knocked on his arse. ''Damn! Guess you win the round.'' He wheezes out.

''Good Spar, get yourself cleaned up and fed.'' She commends as she begins to move out of the ring.

Making her way towards the ship's showers while undoing her armor.

**''Admiral sensors have picked up hundreds of transports coming through the relay, you are needed on the bridge.'' **Says one of her men over the PA system his voice neutral.

Her shoulders slumping slightly trying to suppress the groan that escaped her. Composing herself and making her way towards the bridge, bringing up her Omni-tool and keying the bridge. ''Do we have any word from Captain Siliana on what their planing?.'' She Asks calmly.

''No Admiral, they are going through the information at the moment.'' Answers the officer.

''Good, I will take a shuttle to her ship so that we can plan, no need to waste time.'' She states Conviction in her voice.

''No need Admiral they are already on their way to the Talon Ma'am'' Came the officer's reply, he sounded tired. She made note of that and would probably have to go over the schedules later.

''Understood what about the information from the battle that looked stranger than usual engagement with their group.'' She asked the ship's command crew while moving towards the ship's elevator while manoeuvring around a repair crew most of them working slowly.

''Not much Ma'am the Humans dumping so many of their munitions nearly fried the ships sensors and VI, Though from what we could gather it seems that some of their ship's weapons just did not seem to work properly not to mention I have strange readings, it seems for some reason that some of the ship's kinetic barriers just never activated.'' Came a different officer's voice.

''I want those results sent to my Omni-tool and cross-check them with previous information if you have the time, something about that fight was strange. I also need the information about this new force so I can start planning'' She orders while moving towards the ship's main elevator.

Making her way towards the Talon's hangar bay while information was sent over to her Omni-tool. It showed a massive number of transports with a small escort and a single dreadnaught protecting the transports, trying to make a plan that could deal with them, she failed to notice a human shuttle landing in the bay.

A tap to her shoulder brought her attention over her shoulder, noticing that it was just her marine escort she relaxed, going over the details of the information waiting for the shuttle to open its ramp.

''That Shuttle is a beauty don't you think Ma'am'' Asks Sabelus sounding awed looking over the Thunderhawk.

''I guess, I think that it would definitely get people on the ground and support them but, It's just look at that thing it's so much larger than one of our shuttles and it is more like one of our gunships.'' Says Orinia a little emotion in her voice.

Sabelus grunts his agreement while he examines the large gunship. While one of three bays open up at the nose of the transport, three figures exiting one been the captain and her two guards all in alliance armor.

''Captain, I was just going through the information, I would suggest we head for the CIC center of the ship so that we can draw up a battle-plan or see what you have.'' Says Admiral Orinia as more of an order than a suggestion.

''All right, Admiral this is your boat so lead the way.'' She responds to the captain while making a human gesture with her hand.

Turning and heading towards the CIC Orinia noted that the captain moved to her side.

Siliana turned her head towards the admiral. ''I have a plan that I would like to go over when we arrive but, it carries a lot of risks I want your input.'' She says sounding slightly distracted.

''I understand but we can't risk giving away our ships, an in-system jump would allow them to track us here,'' Orinia states while stepping into an elevator.

''Yes but I was thinking of using what remained of our stealth vessels to go through with this, We currently have one over Shanxi with another thirteen within the fleet of ten are destroyer class,'' Siliana states while she steps into the elevator and using her Omni-tool to project a hastily drawn out plan with a static map of the system and the projected course of the new ships.

Tapping her fingers across the display she zoomed in to where the transports were and there projected path. ''Currently, we have over 800 transports that just came through the relay and this is the path they are taking.'' Siliana states as the projection begin to scroll over to a new image a strange ball with long protrusions.

''These were laid by the fleet in the retreat from the relay, they are marked IV Nuclear space mines capable of producing three thousand kilotons of force.'' Orinia nods to thinking that it would be a good plan. The elevator opens after a short ride and she takes the lead moving quickly to the CIC.

''That's not a bad Idea I think the Talon has a few mines that are slightly stronger than that if you can get them deployed it should give our people on the planet more time.'' She says while looking at the plan before signalling for one of her men to get the Mines ready.

''I see, if we use them to take out a large enough portion of the invasion force it will give the men on the ground some time to rest, I also want to use our stealth ships to hit them after detonation to give the colony more time.'' She says while looking uncomfortable as they enter the CIC.

Orinia leads the Captain over to a tactical display and uses it to bring up the plan. ''I can see and it's not a bad plan though it could use some refinement before those transports get closer to the main fleet, I would also advise against such a move there are too many risks even if they can safely stealth away after the mission. Any word on the main battle group?'' She states while moving multiple symbols for the plan while asking for an update on their reorganising.

''Nothing yet but I could task three of our stealth ships to look for them and to search for the rest of the fleet and the area but it's has a higher risk of the new mission failing. Also,'' Siliana says as she brings up an image of the fleet over Shanxi. She points towards a single Dreadnaught. ''This is where the Batarian Admiral is. I want to have a few of the remaining jump troopers we have jump and board it, and have him killed while taking more data from the ship, so I would like to request the ship's layout if you have it and possibly some of your troops.'' She finished not sounding too happy about the idea.

Orinia goes over the information thinking of different plans while looking at the projector. ''I think it is a good plan, but how do you plan to get your people off that ship,'' she says still going over a plan. ''The other thing is what do you need my men for?'' She asks while running the plan through a simulator.

**Admiral Porvan**

He stood on the bridge of the ship looking out one of the windows while going over his fleet's information. He noted that the fleet was mostly grouped, over the planet with a token force near the relay. He grinned as he noticed that the full invasion forces had arrived with its escorts. He made his way towards his chair so that he could watch the invasion begin upon their arrival.

He watched as a representation of the system came to life waiting for the fun to begin, he watched as his crew began to send out his orders and do what was needed.

A massive flare on his projector caught his attention as he looked sharply to it, noticing that it had originated in the transport fleets location, only for thirteen ships to appear on sensors. Around half the transports.

''MOVE TO INTERCEPT THOSE DAMNED SHIPS!'' Porvan Bellows while his hands try to crush his armrests.

''What is the status of the escorts and how long do we have till we arrive?'' He orders while looking at the display focusing on it.

His pilot is the first to respond in a tight voice. ''We will be in optimal firing range in eight minutes Admiral.'' He answers as fast as possible while getting the ship moving.

The ship shakes for a moment a few seconds before the fleet is underway, only for his ship's engines to blow out in a quick explosion, knocking the crew off balance for a moment, porvan got up and looked around growling as he watched his fleet pull away. ''STATUS REPORT!'' He barks out.

''We don't know Admiral, engineering reports that the engines exploded for an... WE HAVE BOARDERS and are been jammed!.'' says a communications officer only to shout at the end his voice showing signs of worry.

Porvan grabs his helmet and slides it on and taking his pistol out. ''Prepare your weapons what is the status of our forces,'' Porvan Growls out while cycling his projector to the borders.

**Sergeant Jack Miller Hunter Ellis airlock**(30 minutes earlier)

He stood in his fully sealed jumpsuit at the head of an eight-man squad. Looking out to the enemy fleet, his gaze on the dreadnaught believed to hold the hostile VIP.

''Nothing like a good old fashion spacewalk, right Miller?'' joked Madison her voice carrying an edge of nervousness, her visor fully polarized and her black and Blue armor clean and unmarked.

Turning his head to look at her and nodding. ''Ya though I have to agree there, I just wish that there was more stuff to look at, it just seems so bland, like Vega.'' He responds good-naturedly, an OI on the back ground channel at his comment.

Quickly going over to Madison and checking all of her seals and clapping her on the shoulder, giving her the all-clear. Looking down over the large number of C12 they were carrying.

''You think the boys down on Shanxi will like the fireworks show were going to put on for them?'' Vega asks his voice chipper.

''Maybe, but I think we may be going for a bit of overkill.'' Says Madison sounding thoughtful while bringing one her hands to her chin.

A sound over the Comm's grabs their attention. ''Okay people were opening up the airlock in a moment, Good luck out there.

The squad goes over the final checks and gets ready, the airlock sucks all the air out of itself as the lock begins to open. The eight-man squad jumps out making use of miniature corrections to stay on course. Miller looks around and sees that the breaching team of 16 Jump troopers and Eight Turian Special forces on his HUD further away. Focusing back on their objective the engines on the back of the ship.

Looking at the view of the planet he can't help but admire how it looks from space, It takes a while to arrive at their objective it was silent as they slowly drifted towards the ship, it's size slowly increasing.

Slowly decreasing his velocity as his squad does the same, as they near the ship they pass the kinetic barriers, turning so their feet are angled to meet the ship and activate their mag boots. Looking around he sees that his squad is all in position, signalling to move towards the engines while pulling out charges.

The squad of 8 moves around the ship's large engines, placing their explosives all around them using up most of their stock, they are signalled by the main group to breach. They move to a nearby airlock hoping that they're not picked up on sensors.

Miller looks to his hud which indicates he had three minutes until the attack on the convoy occurs. Moving towards the airlock that their squad is meant to breach by. Looking around he sees that his squad is converging on the objective. Upon arriving at the airlock he pulls out some of his C12 and places it to the door, moving back and taking cover away from the airlock.

He looks to his HUD which shows there is a minute left, bracing himself for the explosion to come. His Breathing is calm and controlled his training keeping him calm. The clock slowly ticks down as it hits Zero, he sees small bright marble-sized explosions in the distance. As the ships begin to move the second timer hits zero and their explosives go off. Shaking him a bit. A sudden rush of Air alongside shrapnel blows out into space while the squad waits for it to slow. Vega reacts quickly darting into the airlock placing more charges on the second door, he comes out a moment later and takes cover and then sets off the explosives. Air rushes out again and three of the aliens flying out into the cold void their bodies freezing.

''GO! GO! GO!'' He barks out as they charge into the ship taking cover as they enter, the hall is lit the lights near there door flickering. ''Vega take your fireteam and push through there.'' as he points to the left corridor. ''The rest of you on me we're going the other way. remember people we're here to neutralize their admiral, once that's done see if you can grab intel if not haul ass and deploy planetside.'' He orders sharply.

They split and advance down the corridor at a good pace, upon arriving at the door Miller pulls out his Omni-tool and began to hack the door. ''Madison check in with the other squad and find out their status.'' He orders only getting a nod from her.

Madison nods her head her gun still pointed at the door as she gets her updates. ''Team one is making good headway towards the engines room, Team two seems to have run into resistance and is pushing slowly... Vega says Omni gel works on the locks sir.'' She replies all business

''Save the Omni-gel for this lock I'm almost through we can use it to advance after this point, there got the door,'' Miller says as he brings his gun to the ready.

The doors open and Jackson and Anna prepare a grenade for breaching as air rushes out the doors, they are met with gunfire from two squads of soldiers, as Miller's barriers flare he gets into cover as his squad throw grenades into the corridor, they wait a second and pull out of cover and charge into the room firing taking down the defenders, they dive for cover to avoid a barrage from a turret, Maddison shoots off a grenade from her gun at the turret hoping to take down its gunner, the explosion leaves it a mangled piece of metal while the defenders are all left bleed out.

''Squad Status.'' Barks miller while searching for more hostiles.

A round of all clears and I'm clean are heard, the squad advances to the next door slowly checking the corners for possible traps. They arrive only for the door to open followed by a torrent of bullets hammering their barriers barely making it cover.

Jackson hugs a wall adjacent to him, a small amount of blood running down his chest. ''I'm hit not gonna be able to use my rifle with this till we get a good layer gel on it!'' he calls out as his suit gives him a dose of pain killers into his system.

Quickly deploying a drone to get a look he notices a torrent of guards in the next corridor. ''This is gonna be a problem,'' Miller grunts out.

**Admiral Porvan**

He stood aboard his ship looking over the security feeds of multiple boarding parties. ''Where did they come from!'' He growls out while sealing his suit and putting on his helmet.

A nervous officer manning the scanning arrays is frantically going through, the ship's readings while looking over his shoulder. ''We don't have anything on sensors admiral, they came out of nowhere.

Porvan tightens his grip on his guns, looking over to his communication officer his face marred by a frown. ''What is the status of the borders and the transports?'' he says quietly.

The communication officer gulps. ''Sir the borders are making good progress our men didn't have their weapons, and they managed to cut us off from the main armory, our only armed guards are at engineering and near the Bridge and they have been lost, and the security teams are reporting there almost here but there is also an issue some of our systems are failing for no reason'' he says dejectedly while looking at his pistol.

Porvan blinks. ''What, they can't be here almost their primitives!'' He says while slouching slightly then a glint enters his eyes and turns to his terminal.

**Jack Miller**

Walking to the last door with a limp he signals for a breaching charge and aims his pistol. ''Okay this is the last door to engineering once it's broke were getting out of here.'' He says in a bit of pain.

Jackson places a charge and pulls back, an explosion followed by the door bending inwards leaving just enough room to get through, they charge in only to be met with a large group of suited aliens all of which have subdued the Batarians.

Blinking slightly he slowly lowers his rifle at the unknowns. ''Well this makes the mission a lot harder anyone got an idea how to get them out?'' He asks the squad in a small voice.

''I think there might be a few shuttles in the Hanger so.'' Maddison is cut off by an alarm and the drive core starting to get brighter, The suited aliens make a run for the door.

''That can't be good.'' States Jackson as he starts to follow the group of aliens.

Miller turns on his long-range communications. ''All Breaching teams I think the ships gonna blow get to the...'' He never finishes his warning as a gravitational force from the drive-core tears the ship in half throwing him towards a wall.

**Captain Siliana**

She was looking over the status of the ambush and was sorely disappointed with the results, A deep frown on her face they had only destroyed near 300 transports, the problem is that was only a quarter of them and that she now had eight damaged stealth ships, She put down the datapad and turned to get something to reduce the stress of the situation, As she made to leave now that the fleet was safe a priority alert came from the ORCA.

Establishing a live visual feed with the captain of the ship, which was strange because that broke all kinds of stealth regulations. AS the captain's face appeared it currently had a large gash across his cheek and his bridge in ordered chaos.

''Captian we're getting out of here their flagship just detonated itself, we took a bad hit and our Stealth Systems are down, We will try to make for the city we sent word to the general to clear an airfield, wish us luck.'' and the transmission cuts off.

Taking a seat while taking deep breaths she could barely believe what she heard, her head dropping into her hands and could only loath the plan that had just cost her a valuable ship for the defense of the Colony. She knew it was necessary but she hated having to deal with this Situation She couldn't wait Till the Retribution arrived.

**Corporal Ricardo Vega's Fire Team**

He awoke dizzy as he floated inside the hostile ship. The ship's power was off and the room was dark. He shook his head to try and clear the small headache, he Quickly turned his suit's Night vision on which showed him that his team was also floating around. their suits all switched over to their rebreathers.

He quickly orientated himself and went over to Isaac first his Systems indicating he had a breach. He was floating bonelessly till Vega grabbed him and checked his suit over only finding a small breech in his leg area. He sealed it quickly and was about to check on the other's when he heard a grown over the local comm's.

Watson slowly came to she felt like shit her right arm numb and legs aching. ''What the shit hit me I feel like I just got hit by a frigate'' She says painfully and groggily. As she tried to look around only to see a single suit's lights on.

''Na just a Dreadnaught, but were alive Bella so check on Claire and get her up while I try to get this idiot up.'' Vega joked while quickly doing a further check on Isaac with his Omni-tool.

The ship shook as if been struck by something. They checked on their suit's while Watson started to try and Get Claire up her suit was fine but she was out cold from a blow to the head. While doing this she had her systems searching for the other unit's comms.

They were in a large room that had a lot of empty cages that were bolted down into the Hull. It was a dark grey and green color the same as most of the ship. They got underway after they were all awake and patched up as best as they could.

They all moved slowly through the ship they came across a lot of dead Aliens with four eyes. As they moved through the ship the Static that had been fulling their systems communication blared to life. It was filled with People issuing orders to jump ship to the planet from those onboard the ship.

Vega quickly answered comms. ''This is Fire-team Savage of Engine team what our Status.'' He questioned over the Comm's coming out a little forceful. The Team continued to move and entered a new room coming across more of the Four Eyed Aliens who had their weapons pointed at others in full Suits.

They quickly aimed and brought them down before they could notice though there was a bit of swearing from Watson when firing her Weapon. She Switched to her secondary as a reply came over Comm's

''This is Breach lead the Orca is heading to the planet she took some damage, We are to get to the planet by any means necessary. We also manage to link with your Squad leader and his squad with the help of a few of the captives on the ship. We're entering the forward section We will send you a rendezvous point.'' Came the orders from Breach Lead.

While this was going on his squad was busy watching the aliens in suits that were busy collecting Weapons. Those that had weapons were not pointed at them but the floor while they looked at them.

''AAH Vega what's that plan here,'' Issac asked sounding confused to what was going on. He shifted putting most of his weight on his one leg that was not to injured. His rifle shouldered but lowered trying to avoid an incident.

Vega did not bother to answer but he did activate his translator on his Squads Omni-tools. ''Friendlies, you got any way of this bucket of bolts.'' He received no reply from them while Claire just shook her head muttering something that sounded like Idiot.

''They won't hear us boss no ATMO gonna have to play charades and hope they don't shoot,'' Claire said and Vega could hear her grinning at him for that mistake.

Vega just sighed. ''Got it, you won't let that go will you?'' He asked rhetorically while lowering his rifle and mag-locking it and then brought up his Omni-tool. He showed them his Omni-tool while slowly steeping towards them.

This seemed to set one of them off because he closed the distance also bringing up his Omni-tool. It seemed that they would be making progress

**Jack Miller**

He took sight and fired down the Corridor the Batarian going limp as he floated backward. He quickly took cover behind a steel crate as one of the Quarians Blind fired around the Corner. He felt sick and his chest tight he was sure he broke something from the explosion.

He sees tracers fly through the doorway hitting one of the Turians that had survived the Explosion. He hit the pillar behind him his blood leaking out the suit. Shaking his head he quickly primes one of his grenades and throws it through the Door. He only receives a light shake through his suit before he enters the room the Quarian Following him. They were followed by the rest of his Squad and the other teams with three Quarians and two Turians bringing up the rear.

The new room was filled with a few shuttles that looked close to breaking apart. It was dark the only lights coming from their weapons or the Quarian and Turian suits. They secured the room while he received reports from Vega's fire team that was almost to their location. The four Quarians that were checking the shuttles were busy arguing about something.

''What's the status of the shuttles?'' He asked over the comms as his voice came out slightly wheezy. As he walked towards the three shuttles.

The Quarian that was inside the shuttle was the one to reply he wore a red suit. ''This is the only shuttle that's working the other two are busted, were trying to figure out how to get them working.'' The Quarian said sounding tired and a little nasally.

Miller nodded at the report before going over his Options. ''Can you get the other two shuttles to begin re-entry at least?'' He asks while thinking of a possible plan.

A Quarian female just outside wearing purple this time is the one to answer him. ''I think so why most of their engines are shot though?'' She asks sounding Dubius. While looking over the other two shuttles scanning them with her Omni-tool.

He keys a private channel to all jump troopers. ''I have a plan to get us down to the planet.'' He goes over the plan with all the Humans who had boarded the ship. While he is explaining it Vega and his team arrive with five more Quarians.

They would leave fifteen minutes later for the Planet hoping their plan would work.


End file.
